
Amos f^Well: 



ENTERTAINMENTS 
FORTHE HOME CIRCLE 
AND THE SOCIETY 




PRESENTED Iff *VjJ^ 



SOCIAL— TO SAVE 

& iSoofe of ^usgesttons 



SOCIAL COMMITTEES OF CHRISTIAN EN 

DEAVOR SOCIETIES AND FOR 

THE HOME CIRCLE 



BY 

AMOS R. WELLS 

MANAGING EDITOR OF THE GOLDEN RULE, AND AUTHOR OF 

"SOCIAL EVENINGS," " THE JUNIOR MANUAL," 

"WAYS OF WORKING SERIES," 

" FOREMAN JENNIE," 

ETC. 



BOSTON AND CHICAGO 
UNITED SOCIETY OF CHRISTIAN ENDEAVOR 



N 



4 * 



•■- 






Copyright, 1895, 

BY THE 

United Society of Christian Endeavor. 

Gift 

Miss Frances S.Hay 
July 18,1931 



SOCIAL — TO SAVE. 



A company of men and women were shipwrecked 
on an island. Death stared them in the face, — 
death from the hungry waves that lashed the shore, 
death from the hunger that lashed their fainting 
bodies. Wild beasts were prowling through the 
gloomy woods behind them, and a cold night was 
settling down. What did they do? The captain 
urged them to get together, build a fire, organize 
two bands, one to hunt for food while the other 
made a stockade for safety, and then, around the fire, 
safe in the stockade, the entire company would eat 
and drink and praise God together. 

But they did none of these things. Said one, " I 
am too busy ; don't you see I have set my stakes for 
a house?" Said another, " I am too bashful to go 
into company." Said a third, " The ship's crew are 
dreadfully coarse men, and really the party would 
better be more select." Said a fourth, " I am too 
tired; it will do me more good to sleep." " But it 
is for life," urged the captain ; " for life and safety." 
Nevertheless, he urged in vain. 

A True Picture. 

You know that no such scene as this was ever on 
earth ? Would you were right ! For indeed I have 
only pictured to you in a figure precisely what is hap- 



2 SOCIAL — TO SAVE. 

pening every month in thousands of our Christian 
churches. Shipwrecked companies are we, cast up 
on these strange shores of time out of the vast ocean 
of eternity, with death and that ocean impatiently 
awaiting us, and hunger at our hearts, and the night 
coming down, and the beasts in the woods. And 
our Captain urges us, for life, for safety, to live for 
one another; to gather ^around the same camp fire ; 
to give the reassuring pressure of the hand and clasp 
of arm about the neck ; to drive away by love the 
wild beast of loneliness, and by friendly merriment 
the ghost of gloom. " Be social — to save," cries 
our Captain. But we have no time. And we are too 
bashful. And we abhor disagreeable people. And 
we want our own set. And it does not come easy. 
And we are too tired with our day's work. And 
there will be enough without us. 

O, Endeavorers, when I think of that wide, mys- 
terious sea upon which I must soon embark alone, 
alone — till " I shall meet my Pilot face to face," I 
do not want to set sail from a lonely hut while my 
brothers are wandering in the forest, I do not want 
to put forth from a silent shore into the silent sea. I 
want the banks to be thronged with people clasping 
hands, and I want a great, glad shout to speed me 
onward: " Good bye, brother! Only a day or two, 
and we shall all be with you again ! " 

"Social" Defined. 

What is it to be social? It is to appreciate the 
meaning of life. It is to realize that we are set here 



SOCIAL TO SAVE. 3 

in this world, not for houses, lands, gold, silks, 
praise, authority, fame, but for character. It is to 
put first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness. 
Gold separates men. They sneak off, each to his 
own gulch, jealous lest some one else should preempt 
a valuable claim before he does. Ambition separates 
men. My brother and I cannot both hold the office 
at the same time, and therefore — well, " Heaven 
helps him that helps himself." (Some think that is 
in the Bible !) Spite of trusts and combines, of clubs 
and cliques, the god of this world is a god of divis- 
ion, of isolation, and it is only as men get into their 
souls the love of God and the thought of his eternity 
and theirs, that permanently and truly they draw 
nigh to one another. 

How to be Winsome. 

I want to emphasize this truth, because failure to 
understand it is at the bottom of all our social fail- 
ures, in the Christian Endeavor society and every- 
where else. Do you want to be social? Do you 
desire the charm of winsomeness, that will draw men 
and women to you, as bees to the sweetest of flowers, 
as eyes to the loveliest sunrise? The secret of it 
does not lie in small talk, or jokes, or animal spirits. 
You do not need beauty, or wit, or learning. A 
dancing master cannot give it to you, nor a professor 
of etiquette. The secret of loveliness is the love of 
Christ. The secret of winsomeness is the desire to 
win souls for the Master. You cannot be social until 
you are social — to save. 



4 SOCIAL — TO SAVE. 

Do not mistake sparkle for sociability. The ice- 
berg sparkles. Do not mistake movement and ani- 
mation for sociability. The ice cold waves that fret 
the coast of Labrador are full of most impetuous life, 
but they encrust everything with icicles. You may 
make a great stir about socials in your Christian En- 
deavor society, but unless the warm heart of Christ 
is in them, your socials will be more like the water of 
Labrador than the water of life. 

Good — Better. 

Etiquette is good, but Christ is better. Unless, 
to win souls to Christ, you are willing to transgress 
the laws of etiquette, — to speak without an intro- 
duction, for instance, — you cannot be social. Good 
manners are good, but Christ is better. Unless, to 
win souls to Christ, you are willing to meet uncul- 
tured people, clownish people, disagreeable people, 
you cannot be social. Industry is good, and the 
desire to get on in the world, but Christ is better. 
Unless, to win souls to him, you are willing to take 
time from your business, and get on a little less rap- 
idly in your studies, your bank account, your reputa- 
tion-building, you cannot be social. A knowledge 
of one's self is good, but Christ is better. Unless, to 
win men to the Master, you are willing at least to try 
to forget self, to lose self-consciousness in service, 
you cannot be social. 

A Recipe. 

The spirit of snobbishness will kill the socials of 
any society. Christ would not be admitted today 



SOCIAL — TO SAVE. 5 

into certain circles of so-called Christians, if he came 
in the working clothes of a carpenter. Good so- 
cials must be democratic, and the washerwoman's 
daughter and ashman's son must be made to feel as 
much at home as the daughter of Senator Biggun or 
the son of General Moneybags. Egotism, the feel- 
ing that you are better than other people, either on 
account of a better filled purse, or because of a better 
filled head, or because of some other gift of fortune 
or industry, will destroy any social, — does kill every 
social that is dead at all. Put in place of this con- 
temptible spirit the humble acknowledgment of sin- 
fulness and unworthiness, and the glad perception 
that all for whom Christ died are brothers and sisters 
in him, and you will have, you cannot help having, 
successful socials. I do not much care what games 
you play or whether you play at all ; what refresh- 
ments you serve, or whether you let the over-bur- 
dened stomach alone and serve none at all ; sociability 
does not consist in forms and trappings, but in the 
spirit. Forget yourselves ; remember Christ ; seek 
to win friends for him : that is my recipe for a good 
social. Forget yourselves j remember Christ ; seek 
to win souls for him. 

What a farce is a Christian Endeavor society that 
is not social ! A society not social, — what a contra- 
diction in terms ! Some are not societies at all, but 
separieties, — mere collections of self-centred ones. 
And this society of ours is an Endeavor society, — 
endeavoring, at any rate, to be social. Moreover, it 
is a Christian Endeavor society, — trying to be so- 



6 SOCIAL — TO SAVE. 

cial after the pattern of Christ, after the fearless, 
brotherly, loving pattern of Christ. And it is a 
Young Peopled Christian Endeavor society, and so 
should be free from the class distinctions, the caste 
spirit, the artificial barriers, that obtain out in the 
world, but that have not yet parted young Christians 
from one another, and, please God, never shall. 

Saving Souls. 

How can we expect to save souls except by being 
social ? Our lips are not eloquent to preach or plead, 
nor our hands skilled to push the pen along lines of 
power. We cannot preach Christ, but we can smile 
Christ. We cannot argue men into the kingdom, 
but we can sympathize them in, we can love them in. 
Are you a hermit Christian? Do you belong to a 
hermit Christian Endeavor society ? There is a little 
mollusk that bores its way into limestone, makes a 
cell, enlarges it as itself grows, and speedily manu- 
factures its own tomb, becoming many times too large 
to get through the narrow opening by which it bored 
its way in. Precisely this is the folly of every Chris- 
tian and of every Christian Endeavor society that is 
not social, that does not go out into the highways 
and hedges, throw loving arms around the ugly, the 
stupid, the ragged, the wretched, and compel them 
to come in. 

Know Thyself. 

Let alone a knowledge of Christ, and of Christ's 
children, how can we get a knowledge of ourselves 
unless we are social ? You think you believe in the 



SOCIAL TO SAVE. 7 

brotherhood of man. Test yourself at the next so- 
cial, and see whether you do not practically believe 
only in the brotherhood of the congenial. You think 
you trust in Christ. Test the matter at the next 
social, and see if you can trust him even in so slight 
a matter as overcoming diffidence and awkwardness. 
You think you are unselfish. Make trial of it at the 
social by forgetting whether you are having a good 
time in your desire to give a good time to others. 
Social intercourse is the touchstone that will try 
your gold, and without it your religion is likely to be 
just fool's gold, and you never know it. 

The Communion of Saints. 

The vast majority of Christian Endeavorers are 
church members, and take part in the sacred com- 
munion service. Did you ever think that this is not 
merely a communion with Christ, but with one 
another? The ancient Christians did not forget it, 
as they went breaking bread from house to house. 
Hosts of savage foes raged without. It was never 
known what sad gaps would be found at the next 
meeting, — gaps made by the cross, the lions, the 
sword, the fire. Do you not think they knew every 
strange face at those communion tables, and when a 
man or woman joined the church then, in the face of 
that terror and hatred and yawning death, don't you 
think he got a welcome? And don't you think the 
other church members recognized him on the street 
the next day? 

I sometimes wonder that God does not send upon 



8 SOCIAL TO SAVE. 

his church some great calamity, to teaeh us what we 
have well nigh forgotten, the communion of saints. 
In our creeds we say we believe it, and then go on 
and let the secret societies, with their grips and pass- 
words, excel us in the enthusiasm of brotherhood, in 
esprit de corps. Endeavorers, in your acquaintance- 
ships and friendships is it practically immaterial to 
you whether a man, a woman, is a Christian or not? 
In your business and your politics, on the street, in 
the office, and in society, does your heart go out 
equally to Christian and non-Christian? Is there to 
your eyes any practical, decisive line of demarca- 
tion between Christian society and society that is not 
Christian? If not, then no wonder you care little 
for Christian Endeavor socials. How an old soldier 
rejoices to meet his regimental comrades ! How an 
Odd-fellow fraternizes with another Odd-fellow! 
How two Icelanders, met together in New York, 
almost fall on each other's neck ! Shall we admit any 
tie of .nation, race, or organization to be as strong 
as the " tie that binds our hearts in Christian love?" 
And yet we find it difficult, sometimes, to hold 
Christian Endeavor socials ! 

A Stint. 

What is it that is the great barrier to Christian 
work? We do not know one another well enough. 
We are afraid of one another. Smith is sure by his 
downcast expression that Jones is in trouble, but he 
does not go to his aid because he fears he will offend 
him. O we need, Endeavorers, we sorely need to 



SOCIAL — TO SAVE. 9 

get within helping distance of one another. Within 
hearing distance, within touching distance — that is 
easy ; but many live all their lives in the same house 
and never get within helping distance. Now I declare 
that if your socials did this for you, putting you on 
terms of genuine, mutual helpfulness with your 
friends, they would be as valuable as your prayer 
meetings, and as acceptable to Christ. Why can 
they not do this for you? 

I propose to you a stint : that at your next social 
you try faithfully to leap over the barriers of reserve 
that keep you out of some one life. Knock down 
the ice-wall of formality, push through the thorny 
hedge of disagreeableness. dash across the moat of 
shrinking, climb up the slippery bank of awkward- 
ness, in some way, in any way, storm the castle, pen- 
etrate its labyrinths, get within helping distance of 
some one soul. And if you pick out the most lonely 
and least attractive person in the room, and if it 
takes several socials to win the victory, all the sweeter 
will be the triumph, and the warmer the approval of 
our Elder Brother. Only by such personal work as 
this, in our socials, can we become soul-winners. 
Only thus can we conquer our gawkishness, our dif- 
fidence, our clumsiness. Only thus, moreover, can 
we gain confidence and power in our prayer meetings, 
because in no other way can we learn our brothers 1 
needs, that the prayer meeting should help, and con- 
quer our fear of our brother, so that we shall venture 
to help him. And thus there is no better ally of the 
prayer meeting than the social. 



10 SOCIAL — TO SAVE. 



As it is in Heaven. 

For another reason, too, the social and the prayer 
meeting should go hand in hand. " Gospel " means 
"good news." "Evangelism 1 ' means the same 
thing. Joy is at the foundation of religion. It is 
easy to be good when we are merry. Laughter is 
not only one of the best gymnastics of the body ; it 
strengthens and invigorates character. The reason 
why some Christians do not grow in grace is because 
they don't have fun enough. More hearty joking 
often means more hearty praying. 

Why, we are to have society in heaven, are we 
not? — and societies, too; Christian Endeavor soci- 
eties, for all I know. And what society that will be ! 
No wall flowers there, but everybody eagerly out in 
the midst of things. No waiting for introductions 
there, with the glorious new name on our foreheads. 
Everybody interested in everybody else. No one 
bored or stupid or shy. Ail faces bright and beam- 
ing. Social committees, while you are about your 
tasks that are often severe and perplexing, rest on 
the thought that it is for this society you are training 
the other members and yourselves. " He who loves 
not his brother whom he has seen, how can he love 
God whom he has not seen?" He who is not so- 
ciable here, how can he expect to enjoy the society 
of heaven? 

What kind of sociability have they in heaven ? The 
answer to that question may tell us how to carry on 
our socials here below. 



SOCIAL — TO SAVE. II 

Four Kinds of Times. 

Well, for one thing, I am quite sure that they have 
a good time. You may know that there are four 
kinds of times, — a good time, a goody-goody time, 
a bad time, and a baddy-baddy time. A bad time — 
you all know what that is. A baddy-baddy time is, 
for instance, a social where silly, profitless games are 
played, like the kissing games now happily obsolete. 
A goody-goody time is an over-proper time, a social 
that is dry and unattractive, where the games have 
no snap to them and the amusement does not amuse. 
But in heaven we shall have good times, and so we 
should in our Christian Endeavor socials here on 
earth. A good time is attractive enough to take 
everybody out of himself, and cheery enough to make 
every one feel happy. 

The Presence of Christ. 

How shall we get this kind of time? Well, to add 
another point to the account of the socials they must 
be holding in heaven, Christ will be there. He 
should be present from beginning to end of every 
Christian Endeavor social. We do not pray half 
enough over our socials, either while we are planning 
them or while we are carrying them out. Unless a 
social is a sort of silent prayer meeting, it is certain 
to be a failure. And the chief thing we should pray 
for is that Christ should be there. Have you read Dr. 
Gordon's book, "When Christ Came to Church"? 
Read it, and it will move you profoundly, and will 
open your eyes, perhaps, to see our blessed Lord in 



12 SOCIAL TO SAVE. 

the midst of his people, when they are playing as 
well as when they are praying. 

How if the Carpenter, dropping saw and hammer 
from weary hands, should in visible form enter your 
next social? should ask, "What are you playing, 
my children?" should beg, "Let me join in your 
game"? Would you wish the game something dif- 
ferent? Would you like to change the spirit in 
which the game is played? This consideration af- 
fords the only possible answer to the common ques- 
tion, What games are proper for Christian Endeavor 
socials? The answer is, Any game in which Christ 
would join, — the loving, the pure, the manly, the 
joyous Christ. 

Talking or Conversing. 

I am not at all sure, however, but our social com- 
mittees are likely to attach too much importance to 
games. There is one thing I know we are to do 
in our socials in heaven that we do far too seldom 
in our socials on earth — converse. Conversation is, 
I am afraid, a lost art. Indeed, has it ever been, 
for the majority of people, a found art? We talk, 
— O yes, we talk ; but talking is not conversing. 
Talk is when Mr. Smith says something about him- 
self, and then Mr. Jones says something about him- 
self, in reply to which Mr. Smith tells something 
more about himself, in return for which Mr. Jones 
imparts further information regarding himself. That 
is talk. It gets nowhere. There is nothing mutual 
about it, except mutual boredom. Mr. Smith does 



SOCIAL — TO SAVE. 1 3 

not listen to what Mr. Jones says about himself, 
nor Mr. Jones to what Mr. Smith says about him- 
self. 

True conversation, on the contrary, is not a firing 
at cross purposes. It may be personal, but it is not 
egotistic and gossippy. It has one goal and one 
direction, and not two goals in two opposite direc- 
tions. If you want to converse — and every Chris- 
tian should, for it is one of the very best ways of 
preaching Christ, being the way Christ himself most 
often used — if you want to converse, you must first 
of all find some common interest between you and 
your comrade. The Christian way to do this is to 
discover what he is interested in, and then make 
up your mind to be interested in it also. Every one 
is most likely to be interested in what he is doing, 
and so I advise all members of social committees, 
when in doubt how to keep up a conversation with 
a stranger, to ask all sorts of questions about his 
occupation. No matter what it is. If he tends horses, 
develop a devouring hunger for information on horses, 
and currycombs, and glanders, and holdbacks, and 
whiffletrees, and horseshoe nails. If you are sharp, 
before long you will discover in his talk about horses 
something else in which he is interested, and you 
can go on to talk about that. 

Put Yourself in His Place. 

To converse, Endeavorers, requires sympathy more 
than anything else, — that sympathetic imagination 
which puts one's self in another's place, sees life 



14 SOCIAL TO SAVE. 

through his eyes, joins him in his interests. And 
that is why true conversation is so valuable spirit- 
ually. It takes us out of ourselves, immensely 
widens our experiences, and deepens our knowl- 
edge, and adds to our lives the lives of those we 
meet. We should have far more conversation in 
our socials than we have. 

But of course I would not depreciate games. I 
count a good game one of earth's chief blessings, 
sent from heaven. I would have all social com- 
mittees hunt for them as for precious stones. There 
are few ways in which consecrated ingenuity can 
be more blessedly used than in the contrivance of 
bright, jolly recreations. Only, don't be too in- 
genious. For a safeguard, and to disarm criticism, 
submit to your pastor all your plans for entertain- 
ment, and admit to the social no form of amusement 
on which he cannot pronounce his benediction at 
the end. 

Why Socials Lose Interest. 

And then — for I must stop somewhere — there is 
just one other point in which our socials should imi- 
tate the society of heaven : on earth, as in heaven, 
the central word should be Salvation. Do you want 
to know why some socials lose interest? The social 
committee does its best. Every plan that promises 
diversion is eagerly taken up, and carried out with 
wit and grace. Every novelty is tried. Money is 
not stinted. There is food for the mind as well as 
tidbits for the palate. There are pretty decorations 
and pretty dresses and pretty cards of invitation. 



SOCIAL TO SAVE. 1 5 

And yet the attendance is small and constantly grow- 
ing smaller. Why is it? 

It is because your socials lack an adequate pur- 
pose. It is because they appeal only to the senses 
and not to the soul, and other less pure amusements 
can appeal to the senses far more successfully than 
Christian Endeavor socials. No ; if our socials are 
to compete with any hope of triumph against card 
table and theatre and ballroom and poolroom, they 
must present a motive to which those cannot attain, 
they must be all alive with the purpose to save. 

Social — To Save. 

Social — to save! To save from what? Well, 
from loneliness, for one thing. The social commit- 
tee has come to the kingdom to be the everlasting 
foe to cliques, and sets, and selfishness. It will seek 
to make the unpopular popular, by changing either 
his character or the character of those that snub 
him. 

Social — to save from discontent. "Down with 
snobbery ! " cries every true social committee. Make 
every one contented in his lot by respecting him in 
it, provided he is doing his best. Permit no caste — 
except the cast-iron pledge ! 

Social — to save from uselessness. Take the awk- 
ward boobies and transform them into wide-awake 
gentlemen. Develop latent talents and energies. 
Cultivate the wall-flowers, — the social committee 
is a flower committee as well, — cultivate the wall- 
flowers, as a skilled gardener would, until they have 



l6 SOCIAL TO SAVE. 

become more hardy plants, and can stand, without 
a prop, in the centre of the garden. Are you wait- 
ing for men to come half way to meet you ? Go 
more than half way to meet men ; go all the way, as 
Christ did. 

Social — to save from gloom. If the lookout com- 
mittee has done its duty, you have gathered into 
your society the depressed young people, the dis- 
couraged, those whose tempers have become soured. 
Ah, who has greater need than they of our cheery 
brotherhood? And yet how easy it is to let them 
alone, and have to do only with sunnier dispositions ! 
But we must not let the Juniors have a monopoly of 
the sunshine committee, and our social workers must 
remember that the one test of those that " scatter 
sunshine " is — not whether they brighten the places 
already bright, but whether they shed light in the 
dark corners. 

Social — to save from sin. I am convinced that 
Christian young men and women do not have enough 
to do with the "toughs," the disreputables. How 
far you should invite them to your socials depends 
on circumstances, — depends on the stability of 
character of your members. That matter your pastor 
alone should decide. But Christians dare not forget 
that Christ came not to save the righteous, but sin- 
ners ; and that the disciple should be as his Lord. 

Social by Proxy. 

The trouble with some socials is that most of the 
Endeavorers think they can be social by deputy. A 



SOCIAL — TO SAVE. 1 7 

stranger is present at the meeting. " O, Miss Saun- 
ders will greet the stranger all right." A new family 
moves into the neighborhood. " O, Miss Saunders 
will call on them all right." An awkward boy joins 
the society. " O, Miss Saunders will make him feel 
at home." Now this is unfair to Miss Saunders, and 
disastrous to the society, and absolutely ruinous to 
yourself. As well send Miss Saunders into a gym- 
nasium for you and say, " O, Miss Saunders will de- 
velop my biceps all right," as expect Miss Saunders 
to do the Christian work God wants you to do. 
Most societies have one or two good handshakers, 
tacitly deputized to do the hand-shaking for the 
other sixty or eighty. A stranger comes in, and if 
the deputy handshaker is not there, not being omni- 
present, the stranger skulks to a seat, and shivers. 

Everybody Social. 

Brethren, sisters, the work of a social committee 
is not done till all the Endeavorers are social. 
Brotherliness cannot be delegated. Get the Endeav- 
orers to see what a serious and pressing matter this 
is. Why, suppose the astronomers, after careful 
calculation, should assure us that a comet was going 
to strike this earth next week with such force as to 
destroy all life upon it. Would your society appoint 
a committee to do all the talking on this subject? If 
a stranger had a newspaper in his hand, would you 
wait for an introduction before you asked him the 
latest news from the observatory? No; every tongue 
would be wagging eagerly, no one would dream of 



15 SOCIAL TO SAVE.. 

being bashful, wallflowers would be absolutely un- 
known, were a comet to strike the earth next week. 
What embraces of friends ! What pleadings with 
sinners ! What frankness and hot urgency of 
speech ! 

Now why can we not feel this way all the time ? 
Compared with the vast stretch of age-long eternity 
whose instants are aeons, our life on earth is far less 
than a week. Only tomorrow, as some day we shall 
count time, and we shall be transferred to a new 
existence. We do not pass this way again. What- 
ever encouragement we are to give the downcast 
must be quickly given ; whatever cheer to the 
gloomy, faith to the doubting, friendship to the 
lonely. There will be glorious sociability in heaven, 
but those with whom God means us to be social 
now may not be there, or, more likely, we shall not 
be there ourselves, scornfully having thrust aside the 
manifest work God gives us to do on earth. Thus I 
would have you plead, social committees, having in 
mind the eternal years, until all members of your 
society come to understand the responsibility of con- 
tiguity, that nearness is a divine trust, that it is for 
high and lasting ends that God brings human lives 
into contact with their own. Never rest, until all 
the Endeavorers are social. 

Social all the Time. 

And not only must all the Endeavorers be social, 
but they must be social at all times. Do you know, 
the test of a social committee comes, not in the 



SOCIAL — TO SAVE. 1 9 

social, but the day after ; nor in the Sunday evening 
meeting, to which you may have welcomed the 
stranger heartily, but on the street and in the cars 
Monday morning. Why is it that people look so 
different in church that they cannot be recognized 
out of church ? Do the Sunday-go-to-meeting clothes 
do it? Or have we partitioned our church life and 
our secular life off into different rooms, and locked 
the door between? Endeavorers, the soul-saving 
spirit that cannot get past Sunday midnight will 
never get a convert. Christian Endeavor socials are 
merely to set the stitches, and the solid knitting to- 
gether of life to life must go on after the social is 
all over, or else the stitches will all be dropped. 

You have more friends already, you say, than you 
have time for ; more acquaintances than you can 
keep up ; more calls than you can return. Very 
likely God wants you, in that case, to neglect your 
pleasant, well-provided-for friends, in favor of people 
less agreeable but more lonely, and sadly in need of 
Christian comradeship. The calls that God calls you 
to make are^ more important than a whole card-case 
full of unanswered calls that he does not urge you 
to answer. 

Too Much Trouble. 

It will take time and trouble to follow up all these 
casual acquaintances made at the Christian Endeavor 
socials. Of course it will. If it did not, I should 
not urge it, for all good things are made of time 
and trouble. 

A farmer once hired a man to work in his potato 



20 SOCIAL TO SAVE. 

patch. One day he sent him out there. " John, you 
may attend, today, to that south field of potatoes." 
" But I haven't time," said John; " IVe got to 
whittle out a toy for my boy." " I hired you to 
tend my potato patch, and not to make toys," an- 
swered his master. " But ivs too much trouble," 
yawned John. " Then it's going to be too much 
trouble for me to pay you," replied his master. 
" Potato bugs'll get the crop, anyhow," urged John. 
" And I'll get a new hired man,." murmured his 
master. 

Now you think that all very silly stuff, because you 
know no hired man on earth would talk that way 
about work his master paid him to do ; but when 
our Master asks us to cultivate people, that's just the 
way we talk : " No time, and it's too much trouble, 
and it won't pay, anyhow ! " 

Our Father's Business. 
What do we consider, practically consider, our 
business in this world? Christ said he came to do 
his Father's business, and so he always had time to 
sit down by wells and by the wayside and stand in 
fields and turn aside to private houses, in order to 
let a little more brightness and truth into some life. 
He did not seek out the pleasant people. It would 
have been delightful for him to tarry all those three 
years with Mary and Martha and Lazarus, or, for that 
matter, to ascend with Moses and Elijah from the 
Mount of Transfiguration. But he had his Father's 
business to do. 



SOCIAL — TO SAVE. 21 

And so have we. That business is not to have a 
good time, though it brings a good time ; it is not to 
study, though it makes us wise ; it is not to heap up 
stores of goods, though it does lay up priceless treas- 
ures. That business is not to enjoy the friendship of 
good people, bright people, attractive people, though 
it blesses us with such friendship in spite of our- 
selves. Our business is to spread Christ's joy 
among men. Our business is to be social — to save. 

Oh, we need to learn how to smile, — not on our 
lovers, our friends, the dear ones in our homes, — 
we know that already; but on the peevish, the cross, 
the sullen, the ugly. Oh, we need to learn how to 
talk, — not with the friendly, the well-informed, the 
responsive, — we know that already ; but with the 
stupid, the rude, the uncultured and coarse. Oh, 
we need to learn how to shake hands, — not with 
soft hands, and white hands, and warm hands, and 
strong hands, — we know that already ; but with 
soiled hands, and cold hands, and hard hands, and 
flabby hands. Christ's hands were hard, and many 
a time were cold. And we need to learn the eti- 
quette of heaven, which counts a want that we can 
fill the highest introduction ; and we need to learn 
the politeness of Paradise, that bows reverently be- 
fore God's image in the human form, no matter how 
sadly sin has defaced it. And we need the ingenious 
boldness of Paul, that was ready to be all things to 
all men, if by all means he might save one man. 
May God grant wit to the brains of his servants, 
tact to their hearts, and warmth to their hands ! 



SOCIALS AND GAMES. 



A WORD OF ACKNOWLEDGMENT 

Of course very few of the games mentioned in the 
following pages are original with me. I have gath- 
ered them from all sorts of sources, books and peri- 
odicals, but mainly from the kind correspondents of 
The Golden Rule, whose contributions to its " Merry 
Times " department have been helpful, and greatly 
appreciated. 

In many places I have acknowledged my debt to 
others for plans and suggestions, but by no means in 
all cases, since for many I have lost the record, or 
the game was discovered in some paper that itself 
had copied it without credit. Besides, a large num- 
ber of these games I have developed merely from 
hints here and there, a sentence or two, or simply 
the title of some social reported, but not described, 
in the Christian Endeavor columns of some religious 
paper. Many other games I have also greatly en- 
larged or decidedly changed, to adapt them more 
completely to the needs of young peopled societies. 

NOUNS AND ADJECTIVES. 

Give to each member of the company one of the 
twenty-six letters of the alphabet, going around the 
alphabet more than once, if necessary. Let each 



SOCIALS AND GAMES. 23 

player then write upon a piece of paper a noun and 
an adjective, both beginning with the letter assigned 
him. The slips must be thrown into a hat, and the 
players will draw them out, each getting a slip other 
than his own. Pencils and drawing paper being fur- 
nished the company, each must proceed to illustrate 
his noun and adjective in one drawing. If, for ex- 
ample, " chair, cowardly, 1 ' were the combination, a 
picture might be drawn of a girl standing on a chair 
terrified at a mouse. 

HANGING. 

The game of "hanging," though simple in princi- 
ple, is not at all easy to play, ai.J is very fruitful of 
interest and instruction. If there is a large party, in 
order to play this game it should be broken up into 
groups of three or four. 

One person in each group thinks of some proverb 
or familiar quotation. Suppose he chooses, " Make 
hay while the sunshines." He marks on a piece of 
paper, putting a little dash in the place of every letter, 
and vertical lines between the words. His comrades 
are to find out what quotation he has thought of in 
the following manner. 

They call for the insertion of letters one a time. 
Naturally they call first for e, since e is the common- 
est letter. The paper will then look like this : — 

-_-e| ---I e |--e | ---| e- 

Next they may call for z, a, o. 
When the call for is made, the player with the 
paper, since the letter is not contained in the prov- 



24 SOCIAL TO SAVE. 

erb, will write it across the horizontal bar of a large 
scaffold that he has drawn, from which is hanging a 
man at the end of a rope. When a second letter has 
similarly been called for that is not contained in the 
quotation, that letter is written across the rope, and 
when a third letter is called for, that letter is written 
across the man, and the players are said to be 
hanged, that is, defeated in the game. If the sen- 
tence is made out before this direful event, the 
person who thought of the proverb is himself 
defeated. 

TROLLEY PARTIES. 

The present fashion of holding trolley parties may 
well be utilized by Christian Endeavor societies, and 
much social pleasure as well a great deal of inciden- 
tal profit may be gained from these swift rides among 
the pleasant suburbs of a city. 

A Christian Endeavor trolley party should always 
have a purpose in view. For example, you may take 
the society out to hold a meeting in some district 
where a Christian Endeavor meeting would be a rare 
privilege, in some old folks' home, for example, or 
schoolhouse, or orphan's asylum. 

If your city is rich with historical memories, as are 
most of the great cities of the country, a trolley party 
planned along the lines of local history, and guided 
in each car by some one who is familiar with the 
ground to be covered, and can give a running lecture 
upon the great events that took place near the road 
traversed, would prove a great success. 



SOCIALS AND GAMES. 25 

SIGNIFICANT INITIALS. 

To play this game one of the company must think 
of the initials of the name of some famous man, and 
must substitute for his name words descriptive of the 
man, and having the same initials. For example, he 
may say, " Union general," leaving the other players 
to guess that he intends Ulysses Grant. After this 
name has been guessed, the other persons, taking 
turns, furnish their puzzles. 

AVERAGES. 

To play the game of averages successfully requires 
some rare qualities. The members of the party must 
have some wit, some ingenuity, and a great deal of 
good nature. This last requirement will be seen to 
be especially necessary. 

First, the company agree upon a set of ten charac- 
teristics in regard to which they will average each 
other up. The list may read much like this : Bright- 
ness, beauty, politeness, courage, honesty, etc. 

Each of the company is~then investigated in order, 
and his average determined. As to courage, for in- 
stance, the person under review will lay as large 
claims as he can hope to substantiate, and in a jest- 
ing fashion the other members of the group will either 
advocate his claims or strive to bring down his aver- 
age by relating stories of times when he showed the 
white feather. The discussion merrily goes on until 
the entire company is ready to vote on a per cent. 
A majority vote decides what shall be the rating 



2 6 SOCIAL — TO SAVE. 

of each contestant in regard to each quality. The 
player who is found, on the conclusion of the argu- 
ments, to have the largest total of per cents, is con- 
sidered the victor. 

A VIOLET SOCIAL. 

Let the social committee prepare beforehand pretty 
violet-tinted cards. On each are written, in gold ink, 
verses of Scripture. The cards are then to be cut 
in two diagonally, and little bits of white ribbon may 
be tied in one corner. 

When the guests arrive, each receives one of these 
halves, care being taken that half of each card goes 
to a gentleman, and the corresponding half to a lady. 
The first part of the social is occupied by matching 
the cards. 

Those that receive halves of the same card take 
lunch together. At this lunch, violet tissue napkins 
will be used, and bunches of violets will be given to 
all the company. The recitation of poems on the 
violet, such as Lowell's, would be an appropriate 
feature of the evening. There may be. a paper on 
the violet, giving stories connected with it, historical 
or otherwise. 

INVITATIONS TO POVERTY SOCIALS. 
In " Social Evenings "I have described the plan 
of a poverty social. Here is an invitation to such a 
social that is so bright it is well worth preservation. 
It should, of course, be printed on coarse brown 
paper. 



SOCIALS AND GAMES. 27 

Y. P. S. C. E. 

Harde Times Soshul. 

You air axed to a doins us folks air a goin to hav at the 
hum of Mr. and Mrs. J. A. Parsons, 

Friday Evenin, March 30. 

RULES AND REGULASHUNS. 
Chapter I . Every woman who kums must ware a kal- 
iker dress and apern, or somethin ekaly approperate, and 
leve their poughdle dorg to hum. 

Chapter 2. Every gent must ware thare old close and 
flannil shirts. No gent with a biled shirt an dude koller 
will be aloud to kum onless he pays a fine uv 5 cents. 

A VOTE UV THANKS 

Will be given to the man or woman hevin the worst-lookki 
rig in the rume. These rules will be inforced to the letter. 
A kompetent komitee will interduce strangers and look 
arter bashful fellers. 

EXTRY GOOD KAUGHPHY AND WRINGERS 

Will be et from ate to ten o'klock. Admishun to get in 
will be ten cts. This takes in the supper and the hull 
thing. 

FINES FUR LADIES. 

No apurn, 1 cent ; ear rings (plane), I cent ; ear rings 
(dimund), 2 cents; wool dress (old), 2 cents; trimed 
apurn, 2 cents ; gold fraim glasses, 2 cents ; finger rings 
(plane), 2 cents; finger rings (dimund), 3 cents; wool 
dress (new), 5 cents ; bokey (korsaige), 5 cents ; bokey 
(hand), $1.00. 



28 SOCIAL TO SAVE. 

FINES FUR MEN. 

lied hare er wacksed mustash, I cent ; blacked butes, 
I cent ; sigars in pocket, I cent each sigar ; pipes exemt ; 
watches (not Waterberry), I cent ; stove-pipe hat, I 
cent ; chuing gum, I cent ; brocade ties, I cent ; klerical 
ties, I cent ; kerrying a kane, I cent ; stand-up kollars, 2 
cents; patent letter shuse, 2 cents; died mustash, 3 cents ; 
buttenhole bokey, 5 cents. For gent or boy with curled 
hair, 1 cent. 

FERN SOCIALS. 

These are exceedingly pretty affairs, and are 
easily got up. The announcement cards may be or- 
namented with pressed ferns. The room should be 
decorated with ferns and pretty wild flowers. The 
table, if there is a lunch, may be made very beautiful 
with ferns and moss, miniature pools of water being 
represented by mirrors. The entertainment may 
consist of quiet games, with music. Have some one 
recite the poem, " The Pressed Fern." 

COUNTING THE WORDS. 

A pleasant occupation for a few minutes, that 
may be engaged in by a large company, is the follow- 
ing. It looks simple, but it is not so simple as it 
looks. Let some one read aloud half a page from a 
book, pronouncing the words with moderate rapidity. 
As he reads, let the members of the company try to 
count his words. The person who comes the near- 
est to the truth in his estimate is judged the victor. 
It is astonishing how widely these estimates will 
vary. 



SOCIALS AND GAMES. 29 

ANIMATED PORTRAITS 

A pleasant game for a Christian Endeavor social 
is thus prepared. Over a door drape a curtain, in 
the centre of which is hung a frame, through which 
can be thrust the heads of various persons chosen 
from those present. These heads are to be attired 
in such fashion as to represent various well-known 
characters, such as Christopher Columbus, Queen 
Victoria, Captain Kidd, Lydia E. Pinkham, etc. 
The audience are to be informed that they are at 
liberty to make frank criticisms on these animated 
pictures, for the purpose of causing a smile. In case 
the audience is successful within a certain time, the 
person who represents the picture must pay a fine. 

CORN SOCIALS. 

The room, of course, will be decorated with corn- 
stalks and ears of corn. Visitors to the Agricultural 
Building of the World's Fair will know what a fine 
decorative effect may be produced even by the unas- 
suming corncob. The lunch, if you have one, will 
consist of preparations from corn, such as blanc- 
mange, corn-starch cake, popcorn balls, and loose 
popcorn. At one social of the kind of which I have 
heard, each guest had at his plate, as a souvenir, a 
corn plaster tied with a pretty ribbon! The young 
women received small ones, and the young men 
large ones. 

You may have a guessing contest for part of the 
evening, the contestants striving to guess the num- 
ber of grains of popcorn in a small dish. The ap- 



SO SOCIAL TO SAVE. 

propriate prize will be a wall rack made by screwing 
three toilet hooks in a great ear of white corn hung 
by a silk ribbon. 

Some one might read a paper describing different 
kinds of corn, — their growth, their distribution, and 
their value. Another might tell what kinds of sub- 
stances are manufactured from corn, while a third 
could recite Sidney Lanier's beautiful poem, " Corn." 

A CHALK TALK. 

Many of your societies may contain very fair ar- 
tists, who with a little encouragement will be able 
to set before you, possibly not such an entertain- 
ment as Frank Beard would give you, and yet an 
amusing and profitable chalk talk. 

The plans your home artist will form for himself 
will be better than any I could propose. Take as- 
a suggestion, however, one chalk talk given by an 
amateur before his society, and well received by 
them. He made a series of sketches illustrating, 
in a punning fashion, the names of about a dozen 
books, such as " Looking Backward," " Ships that 
Pass in the Night," " Uncle Tom's Cabin," " The 
House of Seven Gables," and " Rose in Bloom." 
As he exhibited the sketches, he gave also a comic 
lecture introducing each of them, and knitting them 
together in a loosely woven story. 

The listeners were furnished with slips of paper 
and pencils, and required to write the name of each 
story as it was illustrated. The best of these lists of 
guesses was rewarded with a little memento. 



SOCIALS AND GAMES. 3 1 

PIGEON. 

The leader of the game whispers to each one of 
the company the name of a bird. He then says that 
he will give the names of two birds together, and 
those two birds must change places (the company 
having previously been seated in a circle). When, 
however, he calls " pigeon " among the birds, the 
other members must try to catch the pigeon, a prize 
being given to the successful one, and the pigeon 
receiving the prize if no one catches it. 

All but six or seven of the company are named 
pigeon. To blind the players, the leader calls first 
the names of these in pairs. These change places 
as their names are called. Then the leader calls, 
4i Pigeon," and all to whom he has given that name 
make a frantic effort to escape from some imaginary 
pursuer, thinking that the whole roomful is chasing 
them. 

A game somewhat similiar to the foregoing is 
described in "Social Evenings" under the title, 
" Pansy." 

TO FIT. 

An excellent amusement for a Christian Endeavor 
social, to fill up a spare half hour, is the following. 
Cut a square opening in a pasteboard, which is 
placed prominently in the front of the room. Dis- 
tribute to the members corks of different sizes. Pro- 
vide with sharp knives those that are not already 
provided. Explain that the task before them is to 
cut the corks so that they will fit the square opening, 
without measuring the opening, judging entirely by 



32 SOCIAL TO SAVE. 

the eye. The one whose cork fits the best should 
receive honorable mention. 

TOASTS. 

It is a pleasant habit for a society to signalize its 
anniversary by a little banquet. The materials may 
be slight and inexpensive, — sandwiches, lemonade, 
home-made cake, apples, grapes, and similar easily 
prepared and cheaply obtained viands. 

One of the pleasantest features of these annual 
entertainments should be the toasts. Distinguish 
between these after-dinner speeches and the more 
formal reports of the business meeting. Possibly 
the best idea of the character such a set of speeches 
should take on may be gained from the following an- 
nouncement of toasts on a Christian Endeavor menu 
card. Notice the use of quotations from Shake- 
speare : — 

Looking C. E. from the Administration Building, 

By the President. 

u When to the session of sweet, silent thought, 

I summon up remembrance of things past." 

Society Gossip, By the Secretary. 

" V 11 play the eavesdropper P 

Rocks and Snags, By the Treasurer. 

u There is no living with them nor without them" 

Searchlight Corps, Chairman of Lookout Committee. 

" Pointing you out what thing you are." 
The Arsenal, Chairman of Prayer-meeting Committee. 
u And Satan trembles when he sees 
The weakest saint upon his knees." 



SOCIALS AND GAMES. 3$ 

Your Money or Your Life, 

Chairman of Missionary Committee. 

" And they all, with one consent, began to make excuse." 

Chords and Discords, Chairman of Music Committee. 

" The man that hath no music in himself, 

Nor is not moved with concord of sweet sounds, 

Is fit for treasons, stratagems, and spoils." 

Buds, Chairman of Junior Committee. 

" Rosebuds set with little wilful thorns" 

Flowers, Chairman of Flower Committee. 

" Stars that in earth 's firmament do shine." 

The Plaisance, Chairman of Social Committee. 

" Pleasures, or wrong or rightly toider stood, 

Our greatest evil, or our greatest good." 

The Fish Commission, 

Chairman of Society Enlargement Committee. 

* There are as good fish in the sea as ever were caught P 

The Court of Honor, An Honorary Member. 

"Let none presume 

To wear an undeserved dignity" 

PATIENCE. 

This game may be played by any number, pro- 
vided the social committee are willing to prepare the 
materials. Each player must be provided with four 
sets of cardboard disks one inch square, each set 
consisting of thirteen disks, bearing in their centre 
the figures from i to 13 made very distinctly. 

At the outset of the game the players must arrange 
their disks in thirteen piles, on tables, or on large 
books held in their laps. Each pile contains four 
figures, all alike. 

One player, who is the leader, does not arrange his 



34 SOCIAL — TO SAVE. 

disks, but throws them into a receptacle from which 
they can be drawn haphazard. As the leader draws 
his disk, he calls out its number. Each player must 
then take a disk of corresponding number from his 
piles, and move it to one of four new piles that he 
starts elsewhere upon the table. The disks in these 
four piles must not be placed one upon the other, 
but overlapping, so that all figures composing the 
pile can be seen at a glance. As each i is drawn, 
that disk is placed in still another pile, and made 
the basis of a final pile of thirteen ascending in regu- 
lar order. Those that complete, or come nearest to 
completing, in this way, four piles of thirteen each, 
are the victors in the game. 

The lowest disks in each of the four miscellaneous 
piles may be transferred to the four final piles as 
opportunity occurs. For example, if the four mis- 
cellaneous piles should end in 2, 3, 4, and 5, and a 1 
should be drawn, it would be possible to form a final 
pile as far as five. If the removal of any disk dis- 
closes a figure next higher than can be fitted to any 
of the final piles, this transfer may be made, any 
number of disks being transferred in one play. 

This sounds complicated, but it is perfectly simple 
when you play it. Of course the skill comes in the 
arrangement of the four heterogeneous piles. So far 
as possible, the higher numbers that will be needed 
at the end must be placed at the top of the rows, and 
care must be taken not to cut off a disk of lower 
denomination by one of higher rank that cannot be 
withdrawn. 



SOCIALS AND GAMES. 35 

When you have played this game a short time, you 
will see that a comparatively slight element of chance 
enters into it, and a great deal of forethought and 
skilful playing. Besides, it is a game that will amuse 
equally all persons in a large company. 

A HALLOWEEN SOCIAL PROGRAMME. 

In " Social Evenings," I have described the method 
of carrying on a Halloween social. Here is part of 
a programme for such a social, that you may like to 
use. 

HALLOWEEN SOCIAL. 

C Church. 

F Evening. 

" Come spend wi ' us a happy nicht, 
And crack a joke thegither." 

At the C Church, evening. 

Remember it is "Witches' Night," and dinna be fley'd 
gin ye should see weird figures about the ingle, an' see 
strange faces lookin' at ye from a nook in the wa\ 

PROGRAMME. 

1. Music — Vocal Duet. 

2. Origin of Halloween. 

3. Reading — " Witches' Night.' ' 

4. Recitation. 

5. A Poem in Prose. 

6. Apple Gathering. 

7. Refreshments, Collection, Social, etc. 

EVERYBODY COME. 



36 SOCIAL — TO SAVE. 

THE HIDDEN PAPER. 

Take a square of white paper measuring two inches 
eacn way, and let some one go into a room apart, and 
place it in clear view. Then call in the company, and 
bid them find it. It is astonishing how long this will 
often take. I have known a party of twenty, each 
possessed of ordinarily bright eyes, to look for three- 
quarters of an hour before they discovered the elusive 
bit of paper, twisted in the rattan of a chair ! As 
each gets sight of the paper, he must quietly seat 
himself. 

FORTUNE-TELLING. 

Whether fortune-telling produces amusement or 
not depends entirely upon the wit of the fortune- 
teller. If he is not ready with his tongue, it is best 
to have the fortunes written out beforehand. A very 
successful half-hour's entertainment in this line may 
be prepared by writing upon slips of paper quota- 
tions from the poets, describing different fates or 
characters. 

Dress the fortune-teller in any fantastic garb you 
have at hand. Let him step forth from a mysterious 
recess hidden by a curtain, and make an introductory 
speech in any jargon he can muster, introducing, if 
he will, the names of some of the persons present, 
with a word or two of English conveying a sly hit. 

With a profound bow he retires behind the curtain, 
and one after another is led forward and thrusts a 
trembling hand through an aperture. The wizard, 
with many grunts and splutterings of his fantastic 
dialect, pretends to read the lines of the hand, and at 



SOCIALS AND GAMES. 37 

/ast breaks out in some appropriate rhyme, which he 
has in the mean time been selecting. It should be 
stated that the person who leads up the victims an- 
nounces in a whisper to the wizard each time he with- 
draws the name of the person who is next to be 
produced, so that he has an opportunity to select an 
appropriate fortune. 

CITY CHAINS. 

Place the players in two groups facing each other. 
Each group must choose a leader, with whom the 
members of his side communicate in whispers. In 
the centre is an umpire, who, with his watch, gives 
each side a quarter of a minute, or less, for their 
response. 

The leader of one side begins by naming a city, 
such as New York. Within the prescribed time, the 
leader of the opposite side must name a city begin- 
ning with the last letter of New York, as Kalamazoo ; 
and so it proceeds, each leader using the wits of all 
in his group to assist his own. 

When a leader fails to respond in time, the oppo- 
site leader chooses one player from his opponent's 
side, and in his turn starts a new chain. The game 
can be played also with the names of famous persons, 
but this is harder. 

THE RUNAWAY FEATHER. 

Place the chairs in a circle, and give the players a 
large sheet which they will stretch tightly in their 
hands, holding it on a level with their mouths. A 
small feather, colored red or some other distinct hue, 



3^ SOCIAL TO SAVE. 

is placed in the middle. One player stands outside 
the ring, and as those that hold the sheet blow the 
feather from one to another, this outside player tries 
to catch it. The person nearest whom he catches it 
must take his place outside the circle, and attempt in 
his turn to seize the elusive bit of down. 

What with puffing and with laughing, this sport 
soon exhausts the breath of the company. If the 
number at your social is large enough, two or more 
sheets should be put in requisition at the same time. 

EASILY PREPARED REFRESHMENTS. 

A social committee of which I have heard, not 
wishing to take the usual trouble in preparing re- 
freshments for their social, made small tissue-paper 
boats, tied them neatly with paper ribbons, and 
served a boatful of confectionery to all who were 
present. 

A MEMORY GAME. 

In order to play this game successfully, it is neces- 
sary that the list of words and sentences given below 
be in the memory of one of the players, who acts as 
leader. This leader, turning to his next neighbor, 
remarks, " One old owl." He turns to his neighbor, 
and gives the same formula. So it passes around the 
circle till it comes to the leader again, who repeats it, 
and adds the formula, " Two tantalizing tame toads." 

So again it goes around, and again, and each time 
the leader adds a new formula, until the whole is re- 
peated, up to ten. It is safe to say, however, that 
no society will ever get that far. All who forget part 



SOCIALS AND GAMES. 39 

of the formula are dropped from the circle. Here is 
the whole : — 

One old owl. 

Two tantalizing tame toads. 

Three tremulous, tremendous, terrible tadpoles. 

Four fat, fussy, frivolous, fantastic fellows. 

Five flaming, flapping, flamingoes fishing for frogs. 

Six silver-tongued, saturnine senators standing, stento- 
riously shouting, " So-so." 

Seven serene seraphs, soaring swiftly sunward, singing, 
" Say, sisters." 

Eight elderly, energetic, effusive, erudite, enterprising 
editors eagerly eating elderberries. 

Nine nice, neat, notable, neighborly nautical, nodding 
nabobs nearing northern Normandy. 

Ten tall, torn, tattered, tearful, turbulent tramps, talk- 
ing tumultuously through tin trumpets. 

AN EGG SOCIAL. 

This social, to be successful, should have for its 
main feature an egg supper. The menu cards should 
be shaped like an egg, and the eggs themselves may 
be served boiled, fried, potted, scrambled, pickled, 
devilled, as an omelet, etc. Let the waiters wear 
egg-shaped aprons, the smaller end turned up. 
These aprons may be decorated with embroidered 
eggs or chickens. 

The salt cellars may be made of halves of egg shells, 
glued to two wishbones. Egg shells may be trans- 
formed into pepper boxes, the end of each shell being 
sealed up by a bit of pasteboard previously perforated- 



4-0 SOCIAL TO SAVE. 

Such a social as this should be held at Easter time, 
when Easter eggs and Easter souvenirs, cards, etc., 
may be for sale. 

To close the evening, carry out an egg programme 
that may be printed on the other side of the menu 
cards. This will consist of short, chatty papers on 
Easter eggs and other Easter symbols, such as the lily 
and rabbit, the Easter Monday celebrations like the 
egg-rolling at our national capital, and the recitations 
of poems on eggs. 

A NEW MEMBERS' SOCIAL. 
If your society has recently had any special acces- 
sion of new members, why not hold a social for their 
benefit ? Call it a " new members 1 social," and urge 
the old members to make it their especial task on 
that evening to become acquainted with the new 
members and make them feel at home in the society. 

POST. 

This game may be played in a large hall, or out 
of doors on the lawn. It is especially adapted to the 
Juniors, and may be so played as to teach them a 
great deal of missionary geography. The leader 
either marks with chalk, or indicates with his fingers, 
the outlines of some mission country. Let it be 
India, for example. A rough triangle is fixed, anc| 
the places of the prominent mission stations are in- 
dicated by marks, sticks, stones, bushes, or trees, 
and at each of these places one of the players is 
stationed-* One player might stand at Calcutta, one 



SOCIALS AND GAMES. 41 

at Bombay, one at Madras, one at Madura, one at 
Delhi, etc. 

The leader then takes upon himself the name of 
some prominent missionary of India, — say Bishop 
Thoburn ; then, declaring that Bishop Thoburn 
wants to go from Calcutta to Madras, he attempts to 
reach one of those stations while the two occupants 
thereof are rapidly changing places. If he succeed 
in doing this, the player left out has to take his place 
as Bishop Thoburn, and in this way the game pro- 
ceeds. 

A BLIND MENU. 

If you have refreshments at your next social, try 
a " blind menu" for the purpose of provoking mirth. 
A caricature of a man's head may be placed on top 
of the menu, labelled underneath, " General Bill 
O'Fare." Below, place numbers from one to twelve. 
Each person present is permitted to check off, as his 
order, any six, of these numbers he chooses, giving 
the card to the waiter, who will return with a tray 
bearing his selection. The complete bill of fare is : 

I. Coffee. 2. Sugar.. 3. Dried Beef. 4. Sweet 
crackers. 5. Soda wafers. 6. Apricots. 7. Prunes. 
8. Dried apples. 9. Gingersnaps. 10. Raisins. 

II. Doughnuts. 12. Toothpicks. 

CHRISTIAN ENDEAVOR PICNICS. 

During the summer, Christian Endeavor unions 

will miss a good opportunity for binding the societies 

together if they do not conduct a Christian Endeavor 

picnic. The social features of such an occasion may 



42 SOCIAL — TO SAVE. 

.be exceedingly useful. Let every one wear his badge, 
stating not merely his church, but the committee on 
which he works. A short programme might be ar- 
ranged, followed by a basket dinner. The spiritual 
advantages of such a nieeting, if it is properly planned, 
may be made as manifest as the social advantages. 

A BURLESQUE BANQUET. 

The point of this banquet is to serve all the viands 
in exceedingly small quantities. The sandwiches, 
for example, will be about an inch square ; the pickles 
will be cut in very small pieces ; the cheese in half- 
inch cubes. Bits of cake may be cut into pieces an 
inch square. For fruit, inch sections of bananas ; 
for nuts, one filbert, shelled, to each person, or one 
peanut. The candy might be one red-pepper drop 
to a person. Sherbert and lemonade could be served 
in teacups holding about two tea-spoonfuls. Each 
guest could be given a little tin plate and a paper 
napkin. 

If an elaborate menu card is printed, from which 
the banquet is to be ordered, the burlesque will be 
all the more striking. Humorous speeches should 
close the feast. 

A ST. PATRICK'S DAY SOCIAL. 

This must be held, of course, on St. Patrick's Day, 
March 17. Every one is to wear green, dressing in 
that color as completely as possible. Let the clover 
leaf have an important part in the decorations. 
Papers about St. Patrick and Ireland, Irish songs, 
and recitation of Irish poems, will furnish part of the 



SOCIALS AND GAMES. 43 

entertainment of the evening. A great deal of sport 
may be gained from a competition in the telling of 
Irish jokes, judges being set to decide who tells the 
best joke in the best way. The first item in the list 
of refreshments of the evening may be roasted Irish 
potatoes, eaten with spoons from the skin. 

A WAR AND PEACE SOCIAL. 

Drape the room with the national flag, and with 
red, white and blue streamers. Muskets, knapsacks, 
cannon balls, and possibly a cannon, if you are fortu- 
nate enough to have access to one, will add to the 
military effect of the decorations. For the refresh- 
ments you may have soldier's hardtack, softened 
with lemonade. 

For souvenirs you may have small flags in which 
may be rolled slips of paper containing conundrums. 
These will be given to the young men, while corre- 
sponding flags containing the answers will be given 
to the young women, and part of the amusement of 
the evening will consist in matching the two. 

A bugler will call the meeting together by sound- 
ing the assembly. War songs may then be sung, 
and there may be declamations, essays, and talks, 
concerning war. Be sure to include in these a talk 
on the evils of war, and on what Christianity is doing 
to usher in the reign of universal peace. Give this 
topic to your strongest speaker, and make it the cli- 
max of the evening. Pictures may be shown, and 
possibly a magic lantern exhibition may be got up. 
The entertainment may close with taps, when the 



44 SOCIAL TO SAVE. 

lights may be turned down for an instant. Old sol- 
diers will help you by giving you " camp fire talks." 

A HUSKING-BEE. 

Societies will get much amusement out of an old- 
fashioned husking-bee. The older members of the 
church should also be asked to join. Hold a contest 
as to who can shell the most corn in a given time, 
the evidence of skillbeing the possession of the corn- 
cobs. After the frolic about the corn, the members 
may adjourn to the house, where appropriate refresh- 
ments -will be pumpkin pies, apples, lemonade, and 
the like. 

"D. B. F." 

A little amusement for the opening of a social 
may be obtained in the following way. As the com- 
pany enter the room, give each a card bearing certain 
mysterious initials. Every one is furnished with a 
pencil, and must endeavor to get as many as possible 
to sign his card, each one that signs writing a guess 
at the meaning of the mystic letters. It should be 
told the company at the outset that the letters have 
a direct bearing on the purpose of the social. These 
letters should be such as the following: T. T. E. O., 
" Talk to each other," D. B. F., " Don't be formal," 
B. A., " Become acquainted," and so on. After the 
company have all arrived, the chairman of the social 
committee will call for the various guesses as to the 
meaning of these letters, and much fun will be the 
result. 



SOCIALS AND GAMES. 45 

AN OLD-TIME SOCIAL. 

Require every member to appear in old-fashioned 
costume. Failures may be punished with a fine of 
ten cents, and some, of course, will prefer to pay this 
fine. Instruct the members to ransack their garrets 
and dusty trunks for garments. For entertainment 
you may have talks on the costumes of fifty and a 
hundred years ago. Some of these talks may be 
given by the old people of the church. For refresh- 
ments you may have old-fashioned fare. A table of 
curios from Revolutionary days may be got together. 
Old-fashioned pictures may adorn the wall, and an 
old people's choir may be induced to sing some of 
the songs of long ago. 

A QUARTETTE SOCIAL. 

Give out cards each bearing a line of music. The 
cards will have been made in sets of fours, the 
four cards of each set containing the same line. 
The cards must be numbered, and the four who 
hold cards similarly numbered must go together to 
practice their line of music. At a given signal these 
quartettes will step in turn before the company to 
sing. A set of judges previously appointed will 
award some suitable recognition to the best quar- 
tette, probably requiring them to sing an encore ! 
In addition to this a good programme of music may 
be prepared. 

CLOTHES-PINS. 
Place members of the party in two long rows fa- 
cing each other. At the head of each row on a chair 



46 SOCIAL — TO SAVE. 

is a pile of clothes-pins, the two piles containing the 
same number. As the word is given, the head of 
each line picks up a clothes-pin and passes it to his 
neighbor, who passes it to his, and so on, no person 
being skipped. As they reach the end of the line, 
the clothes-pins are laid upon chairs placed there, 
and so it continues until all the clothes-pins have 
thus been transferred. Instantly the movement be- 
gins in the other direction, and the clothes-pins are 
returned to the first chairs. The side that first com- 
pletes the transfer is counted victorious. 

A more amusing form of this game is to require 
the entire pile of clothes-pins to be grasped at once, 
passed down the line, and then returned. If any one 
drops a clothes-pin he must wait to pick it up before 
he can hand the bundle to his neighbor. Bean bags 
may be substituted for the clothes-pins, or corn- 
cobs, wooden blocks, croquet balls, or anything else 
hard to handle and hold. 

WHERE WERE YOU BORN? 

Require the members to attend the social bear- 
ing about their clothing some plain indication of the 
State in which each was born. The majority of so- 
cieties will contain representatives from a large num- 
ber of States, so shifting is our population, and so 
common is travel. One born in Connecticut, for ex- 
ample, might wear a wooden nutmeg somewhere 
about her dress. A gold crown on the head might 
signify a native of the Empire State. A native of 
the Buckeye State might carry a branch from the 



SOCIALS AND GAMES. 47 

buckeye tree, or from the horse-chestnut tree, whose 
leaves are almost identical. 

Give to each of the company a blank piece of card- 
board and a pencil, and let all make a list, as com- 
plete as possible, of the members present, writing 
after each name his guess as to the State where the 
member was born. After half an hour has been 
given to this, let the members one by one rise as 
their names are called, and tell what State they were 
born in, and how they indicated the State by what 
they carried. The members will then count up and 
see who has the largest list of correct guesses. 

A pleasant feature of the evening will be to ask 
each member to be prepared to give some recitation 
connected with his State, or tell some pleasant story 
or some interesting fact regarding it. 

A WOODEN SOCIAL. 

This social'is appropriately held on the fifth anni- 
versary of the formation of the society. Questions 
and answers about plants and trees are to be written 
on chips of wood. Each Endeavorer receives a ques- 
tion as he enters the room, while to the strangers 
present, as far as the strangers will go around, the 
answers are given. The first part of the evening is 
spent in a hunt for the purpose of matching question 
and answer. 

Then may come a programme of pleasant essays 
and talks on the different remarkable woods of the 
world. Specimens of these woods may be shown, 
and pictures of the trees may be exhibited. The 



48 SOCIAL — TO SAVE. 

room may be decorated with blossoms and branches 
of different kinds of trees. There may also be an 
exhibition of the products of various trees. Have 
songs like, " Woodman, spare that tree ! " 

Of course some one will present a sketch of the 
first five years of your society, if this social cele- 
brates its fifth anniversary. 

A POLYGLOT SOCIAL. 

Decorate the room with the colors and flags of 
the various countries. Find out how large a stock 
of languages can be represented from among the 
members of your society and their friends, and get 
some kind of exercise, either song, reading, or reci- 
tation, in each language or dialect. Obtain as many 
natives of the countries represented as possible. If 
you are near or in a large city, there will be no diffi- 
culty here. Have performances on the character- 
istic musical instruments of the different countries. 
A medley of national airs may be played or sung. 
Urge the members that speak foreign languages to 
practice conversation in these tongues ! 

SOMETHING FROM ALL. 

A pdeasant game suitable for a large party and 
therefore helpful in Christian Endeavor socials is 
this : Let each member of the company write upon 
a slip of paper something that he desires some one 
else to do to amuse the company, such as, sing a 
song, tell a story, repeat a poem, tell a joke, and the 
like. These slips of paper are then collected, placed 
in a hat, shaken up, and each one of the players 



SOCIALS AND GAMES. 49 

draws his fate. The leader calls upon the others to 
perform in turn. Of course it will be permissible for 
the members to exchange duties. 

THE AUTHORS' EXCHANGE. 

The social committee should select as many au- 
thors' names as there will be participants in the 
game. If eighty contestants are expected, choose 
eighty authors 1 names, and give to each contestant 
eighty slips of paper, each slip having upon it the 
name of one author. Be sure that no player has 
two slips bearing the same name. 

At the opening of the contest state plainly how 
long it is to continue, say for half an hour, and then 
proceed to explain the rules of the game, which are 
as follows : — 

1. The winner of the contest will be the person 
who, at the end of the stated time, holds the most 
slips bearing the name of any one author. 

2. No one is to receive the gift of a slip, but any 
one may exchange one or more slips with any one 
else present. 

3. As many slips must always be given as are re- 
ceived, on the principle that a fair exchange is no 
robbery. 

4. It is permissible to take more than one name 
to start with, though in the end only one can be 
counted. 

This game, for which I am indebted to Mr. Wil- 
liam W. Hunter, of Boston, is a very social one, 
as it requires every player to speak to every other 



5<D SOCIAL — TO SAVE. 

player, and puts the stranger on an equal footing 
with all the rest. 

A MOVE. 

Where a social consists of a musical or literary 
entertainment and the members are all seated, it is 
an admirable plan at a certain point in the proceed- 
ings to stop and require the members to move, 
taking up their positions for the remainder of the 
programme at least twenty feet from where they 
were first sitting, thus breaking up cliques r and put- 
ting every one present in new surroundings. 

A FLORAL LOVE TALE. 

Distribute among the members of the society 
slips of paper containing the following puzzle. Each 
of the twenty questions must be answered by the 
name of a flower, and the social committee will give 
due honor to the member whose list is most com- 
plete and accurate. 

A Floral Love Tale. 

1. The maiden's name and color of her hair. 

2. An adjective that suited her, and her brother's name. 

3. His favorite sport in winter. 

4. His favorite musical instrument. 

5. The hour he awakened his father playing upon it. 

6. What his father gave him in punishment for it. 

7. What this made the boy do. 

8. The name of his sister's young man and what he 
wrote it with. 

9. What he, being single, often lost. 
10. What candies did he bring to Mary? 



SOCIALS AND GAMES. 51 



II. 


What did he do when he popped the question one 


fall day? 


12. 


What ghastly trophy did he offer her? 


13. 


What did she say to him as he knelt before her? 


14. 


What flowers did she give him? 


15. 


To whom did she refer him? 


16. 


What minister married them? 


17. 


What did John say when leaving her one day? 


18. 


What was she during his absence? 


19- 


What fragrant letter did he send her? 


20. 


What shall we wish for them in conclusion? 


The solution of the enigmas is the following : - 


1. 


Marigold. 


2. 


Sweet William. 


3- 


Snowball. 


4- 


Trumpet. 


5- 


Four o'clock. 


6. 


Goldenrod. 


7. 


Hops. 


8. 


Jonquil (John-quill). 


9- 


Bachelor's button. 


10. 


Buttercups. 


11. 


Aster. 


12. 


Bleeding-heart. 


13. 


Johnny-jump-up. 


14. 


Tulips (two lips). 


15. 


Poppy, or old man. 


16. 


Jack in the pulpit. 


17. 


Forget-me-not. 


18. 


Mourning bride. 


19. 


Sweet P. 


20. 


Live-for-ever. 



52 SOCIAL TO SAVE. 

A HOLMES SOCIAL. 

A Holmes social may be carried on very easily, 
bearing in mind not only the genial Autocrat of 
the breakfast table, but also, by a pun on his name, 
representing different kinds of homes by means of 
tableaux. There will be readings from Dr. Holmes's 
works, and possibly a brief paper on his life ; but 
interspersed among these will be tableaux, showing 
the home of the young married couple, the home 
of the drunkard, the Christian home, the miser's 
home, and the like. Possibly quotations from Dr. 
Holmes's writings may be found, to fit each kind 
of home depicted. 

A STAMP SOCIAL. 

Admission to this social consists of twenty-five 
cancelled stamps. If any one desires, however, he 
may, in lieu of the stamps, pay an equal number 
of pennies. These stamps are to be used for mis- 
sionary purposes, being sold to stamp-dealers. The 
value of the collection will be greatly enhanced if 
members are asked to look up their old letters at 
home, and the letters of their fathers and mothers, 
and make the collection as large and valuable as 
possible. The entertainment of the evening may 
very pleasantly be connected with stamps, especially 
if there are any in the society who are familiar with 
the many interesting facts connected with these 
fascinating bits of paper. By all means have an 
exhibition of all the stamp albums in the com- 
munity. 



SOCIALS AND GAMES. S3 

A TRIP ON THE NO-NAME LINE. 
Have platform scales in the room, and require 
every Endeavorer to be weighed, and to pay, as 
his admission to the supper, one cent for every 
twenty pounds of his weight. In addition, there 
is to be given him a ticket for an excursion on the 
" No-Name Line." This line has eleven stations 
(and others may be added), all of which must be 
passed before the refreshment table can be reached. 
The fallowing are the stations : — 

1. The City of Brotherly Love. 

2. The city built on seven hills. 

3. The Monumental City. 

4. The Flour City. 

5. The home of Mrs. O'Leary's cow. 

6. The most densely populated city in the world. 

7. The Crescent City. 

8. The Queen of the Lakes. 

9. The Modern Athens. 

10. The City of Magnificent Distances. 

11. The City of Churches. 

Before a traveller is permitted to pass through one 
station to the next, the name of the station must be 
registered on his ticket, and the ticket must be sub- 
mitted to some member of the social committee for 
verification. This member will write his name on 
the space following the name of the station on the 
ticket. In case the member is unable to discover 
the name of the station he pays a fine of one-half 
cent, the total fines recorded on his card being paid 
at the last station. 



54 SOCIAL — TO SAVE. 

A DRAWING CONTEST. 

A drawing contest will make an agreeable feature 
of any Christian Endeavor social. As the members 
enter, furnish each with three sheets of drawing- 
paper and a pencil. Set them in groups about small 
tables. Announce that the amateur artists will be 
permitted to choose their own subjects, and that 
each drawing must be finished within ten minutes, 
at the close of which the drawings will be collected 
and a new set entered upon. 

Each drawing must be signed with the name of 
the artist, and the name of the person or thing he 
intended to depict. Judges will be appointed who 
will decide for each set which is the best and which 
is the worst drawing. 

While the others are at work, these judges will 
hang the drawings about the room, and on the 
conclusion of the third set there will be a general 
examination of them, the members voting which 
drawing, in their opinion, is worthy of the highest 
honor, and which is the poorest. It will be inter- 
esting to see whether the common judgment agrees 
with the opinion of the judges. This contest may 
or may not be enlivened by prizes. 

A SOCIAL TO SERVE. 

We have had socials of all possible descriptions : 
" pink socials," " peanut socials," " Scotch socials," 
and socials with no name at all. One thing, it may 
be fairly said, has been true of all that we have held. 
They have been for ourselves, or for other young 



SOCIALS AND GAMES. 55 

people of the same standing in society as ourselves. 
Why- not try a social that will mean, first of all, 
pleasure for those who know little of pleasure, and 
an abundance of hard, but delightful, work for us ? 
In other words, have a social for the boys and girls 
of what men are pleased to call the lower class of 
society. 

If your society is located in a city, it will be an 
especially easy matter to gather in a score, or a half- 
hundred, of boys and girls who do not attend reli- 
gious services, and who have few chances for genuine 
pleasure. Let each member of the society promise 
to devote himself exclusively to the interest of your 
humble guests. Serve refreshments, playgames, and 
in all things let the utmost informality prevail. A 
stirring gospel song and a prayer would fittingly 
close the evening's exercises. Try this, and you 
will surely vote it one of the most successful socials 
that you have ever held. 

ENDEAVOR ORATORY. 
A pleasant evening may be spent by any En- 
deavor society in an oratorical contest. This should 
be announced beforehand, and those who compete 
may make as elaborate preparations as they desire. 
It will be more amusing, however, if no previous an- 
nouncement is made, but all are required to contest 
with impromptu speeches upon themes furnished 
them as they stand before the society. These 
themes may be placed in sealed envelopes from 
which the candidate will select one at random. 



56 SOCIAL TO SAVE. 

A POST-OFFICE SOCIAL. 
A post-office social will prove interesting. Its 
chief feature is the distribution of the mail, with all 
sorts of attendant features that may be devised by an 
ingenious committee. A certain number of the let- 
ters are to contain orders for various packages, 
which will be distributed at the Christian Endeavor 
express office. Both letters and packages are to be 
more comical than serious, though t^e scheme affords 
a fine opportunity for giving useful hints regarding 
society methods. Nothing of a personal nature 
should, of course, be permitted. It will assist the 
fun if the members be requested to read their letters 
aloud in turn. 

A PIE SOCIAL. 

The main feature of this social may be a large pan 
of bran, covered over with paper so arranged as to 
look like pie crust. A slice may be cut out, and so 
a place made where hands can be slipped in, the 
members withdrawing from the pie, as it is passed, 
pieces of paper. Upon these papers are written 
bright gems of thought and clever jokes. As many 
of these jokes as possible should be on pies. The 
reading of these papers is called for by number, and 
a few pieces of music are interspersed. Here are 
sample witticisms : — 

" Why are we here? To cultivate ' pie-ty.' " 
" What is the only kind of pie we have not on the bill 
of fare? Ask " (name of a member who is a practi- 
cal printer). 



SOCIALS AND GAMES. 57 

A boy suggests the following menu for a dinner in 
courses: — 

First Course. 
Custard-pie with tarts. 

Second Course. 

Huckleberry-pie, mince-pie, 
Lemon-pie, chicken-pie. 

Third Course. 

Cream-pie, apple-pie with cheese. 

Dessert. 

Pie. 

An appropriate conclusion to the entertainment 
will be pieces of pie, passed around for the practical 
testing of their contents. For further ideas see 
" Pie Social "in " Social Evenings. 1 ' 

A POLITICAL SOCIAL. 

First the delegates. are to be registered by a com- 
ical judge, who asks funny questions about the name, 
age, color, etc. The answers are recorded in a book 
by clerks. When all have registered, announce the 
names of political parties, Free Silver, Free Wool, 
Free Lunch. The Endeavorers divide themselves 
into these parties, each of which adjourns to a sepa- 
rate room. 

Here, going through w r ith the regular forms, each 
party nominates its candidates for such offices as 
dog-catcher, city hash inspector, pound-master, jani- 
tor of court-house, etc. Party platforms are adopted, 
and then the separate divisions adjourn to meet in 
one large mass-meeting. 



58 SOCIAL — TO SAVE. 

Here, representatives of each party present before 
the society their candidates and platform. At the 
close the delegates vote in voting-booths, a complete 
list of the candidates being posted in each booth. 
Stump speeches, of course, can be made ad libitum 
in the course of the evening, and campaign proces- 
sions will form part of the fun. 

This social is suggested by Mrs. J. Carrie Clark. 

NUMBER GROUPS. 

Give each person present a number, printed in 
large type on a card which is pinned conspicuously 
on the breast. The numbers range from 10 to 24, 
and so of course there will be many duplicates. 
There is a leader, who begins the game by calling in 
a loud voice some number, such as 180. Immediately 
the players as rapidly as possible arrange themselves 
is groups, seeking to form a group the sum of whose 
numbers will equal 180. As soon as a group has 
been thus formed it presents itself to the leader, and 
to each member of this successful group is given a 
slip of paper. 

As soon as one group has thus formed 180 and 
been rewarded, the half-formed groups are dissolved, 
since they do not count anything, and the leader calls 
out a new number. After this has been tried a cer- 
tain number of times, the person that has received 
the largest number of slips is adjudged the winner. 
If you want to make this game very difficult, use 
higher numbers, and attach them to the backs, in' 
stead of the fronts, of the members. 



SOCIALS AND GAMES. 59 

THE COMMITTEES TAKE TURNS. 

If in your society the social committee gets tired, 
try the plan of holding committee socials ; socials, 
that is, superintended by the different committees in 
turn. The slight emulation that will be provoked 
will result in the best socials your society has ever 
held. 

A VEGETABLE SOCIAL. 

Having previously announced what will be expected 
of the members, let the social committee set at the 
door of the room capacious baskets for the reception 
of gifts of vegetables which the members will bring 
for the use of the poor of the town. 

As to the amusements for the evening, one of the 
most obvious is a potato race. Several races may be 
carried on at the same time. 

The social committee may prepare beforehand, 
using water-color paper, potatoes, onions, beets, tur- 
nips, all kinds of vegetables, the paper being cut to 
the proper shape, and painted on one side to repre- 
sent the vegetable. If you have no artist in the so- 
ciety adequate to this task, use the pictures in the 
seed catalogues, cutting them out and pasting them 
on cardboard. 

On the other side of these paper vegetables should 
be written numbers and vegetable conundrums. A 
cardboard vegetable with a corresponding number is 
to contain the answer to each vegetable conundrum. 
These "vegetables " are distributed, and the ques- 
tion and answer must find their mates. This hav- 
ing been accomplished, the vegetable conundrums 



6o SOCIAL — TO SAVE. 

are proposed, in the order of their numbers, and 
guessed by the society if possible. Here are a few 
vegetable conundrums taken from Mrs. Whitney's 
bright book, " Boys at Chequassett." 

A tailor's son planted his father, and what cam s up? 

Ans. Turnips. 
Plant an hour, and what comes up? Ans. Thyme. 
Plant tight shoes, and what comes up ? Ans. Corn. 
Plant a French revolution, and what comes up? Ans. 

A crown imperial. 
Plant China, and what comes up? Ans. Beet. 
Plant auburn hair, and what comes up? Ans. Radish. 
Plant a dancing school, and what comes up? Ans. 

Hops. 
Plant the middle of the afternoon? Ans. Four o'clock. 
Plant the rising sun? Ans. Morning-glory. 
Plant a cat's tail? Ans. Fir. 
Plant a hat that has been sat upon ? Ans. Squash. 

These conundrums are simply samples ; others 
may easily be devised. 

After the conundrums may come a short entertain- 
ment devoted to vegetables. Let the song, " There 
was once a rosy apple, 1 ' be sung, and then shown in 
shadow pantomime. Let some one read that famous 
poem of Longfellow's youth, " Mr. Finney's Turnip." 
There may be a reading, illustrated by moving ta- 
bleaux, of Lowell's, " The Courtin'," which, it will be 
remembered, has to do with apple-paring. Harvest 
songs are abundant, and any of them will be appro- 
priate. At the close of the evening the missionary 



SOCIALS AND GAMES. 6 1 

committee will invite the society to see, spread out 
upon the tables, the vegetables and canned goods 
they have contributed. Of course the cardboard 
vegetables will be carried home as souvenirs. 

AN ART GALLERY. 

This form of amusement is very well known, and 
some of the common catches have become classic ; 
yet it is always sure to create amusement, and if your 
social committee has not got up an art gallery, by all 
means do so. 

You should curtain off a small portion of your 
room, and arrange the different pictures upon tables 
stretched along the side. Each picture is to be la- 
belled with its title, or, if you wish, you may have a 
catalogue pasted in some prominent place. A small 
admission fee may be charged, or not. It will add to 
the fun if some comical genius acts as exhibitor. 

Here is the best list of u works " for such an art 
gallery I have ever seen. 

ART GALLERY. 

Exhibition of Painting and Sculpture, with Many 

Curious Works of Art. 

1. The Holy See Leo XIII. 

2. Rock of Ages Lull Abi 

3. Old Ironsides Bach Acre 

4. The Kids at Rest ......... Alexandre 

5. Voices of the Night Thos. Katt 

6. Mustered In and Mustered Out Keene 

7. A Young Man's Fear ..*.... Disputed 

8. Time on the Wing ... ♦ McGrew 

9. My Own, My Native Lard .... Anonymous 



62 SOCIAL — TO SAVE. 

io. Something to Adore . . McHannick 

ii. Can't be Beat . . . . . . . Annie Fool 

12. Only a Poor Old Wood-Chopper, Geo. Washington 

13. A Perfect Foot N. E. Carpenter 

14. Maid of Orleans S. Orghum 

15. One Hundred Years Ago Al. Manac 

16. Cause of the Revolution Ole Bull 

17. Little Fishes (a study in oil) .... S. R. Dean 

18. Wood Cuts (a group) F. K. Hackman 

19. " We Part To Meet Again " C. Steel 

20. Mementos of the Great Cole 

21. The " Star in the East " . . . . F. Leischmann 

22. A Spoony Couple Unknown 

23. "Samson Was Great; Lo ! a Greater" . . N. Meig 

24. A Marble Group Mike L. Angelo 

25. " Murphy on a Bender " T. Wigg 

26. Bonaparte Crossing the Rhine . . German Valley 

27. View of the Red Sea and Plains Beyond . . . Fairo 

28. The Skeleton Behind the Door .... Unknown 

29. Deer Slayers C. Orset 

30. Horse Fair of '96 G. Rain 

31. A Hard Case O. Shell 

32. Heads (statuary) C. Abbage 

33. A Wayworn Traveller Shuman 

34. Sweet Sixteen C. Andy 

35. " A Perfect Match " M. Atch 

36. Hogg's Tales (illustrated) C. Pork 

37. The Light of Other Days T. Chandler 

38. All Afloat S. Ay lor 

39. The Ruins in China S. M. Asher 

40. Lone Beat (an army scene) ..... Thtulow 

41. The Skipper's Home O. Mite 

42. The Four Seasons Bill 

43. Not To Be Bored G. Imblet 

44. Noted English Essayist Unknown 

45. The American Commentators P. Patch 



SOCIALS AND GAMES. 63 

46. Whaling Implements Birch 

47. Hamlet Alone H. Meat 

48. Wax Figures Mrs. Jarley 

49. Lay of the Last Minstrel B. Antem 

50. Things That End in Smoke T. Bacco 

51. Crossing the Styx Sharp 

52. The Lost Heir Shampooer 

53. Bust of a Boy O. Close 

54. The Best Thing Out M. D. 

55. The Skilful Phrenologist M. Comb 

56. A Tearful Subject G. Rocer 

57. Manufacturer of New England Hoes . . K. Nitter 

58. Tales of Ocean S. McArel 

59. Bad Spell of Weather Unknown 

60. A Friend That Sticketh Closer Than a Brother, 

McCandy 

61. An Old Man's Darling and a Young Man's Slave, 

J. Smoker 

62. Bridal Scene Harness 

63. The Sun That Never Sets Shanghai 

64. The Old Snuff-Taker Unknown 

65. Flats and Sharps Mozart 

66. Sold Again Anonymous^ 

67. The Devil in Disguise (statuary in glass), O. Toper 

68. Ever of Thee I am Fondly Dreaming . . Ban. Kerr 

" The most admirable display of original specimens of art 
to be found in America." — The North American Review. 

" A collection of rare and beautiful gems in the school of 
art, at sight of which the unbidden tears will start." — Paris 
Gazette des Beaux Arts. 

" A few moments spent in its classic realms has a tendency 
to elevate one to higher motives." — Atlantic Monthly. 

1. A large letter C, full of holes. 

2. A cradle. 

3. Flatirons. 



64 SOCIAL — TO SAVE. 

4. Several pairs of kid gloves. 

5. Two cats in a cage. 

6. Mvstard in and mustard out (of a bottle). 

7. A mitten. 

8. Watch on a turkey's wing. 

9. A pan of dirt. 

10. A lock and key. 

11. Turnip. 

12. An axe. 

13. A foot-rule. 

14. Molasses candy. 

15. The date, 1796. 

16. Tacks on tea (tax on tea). 

17. A can of sardines. 

18. Chips from the sawmil... 

19. Scissors. 

20. Coals from the grate. 

21. A star in some yeast. 

22. Two spoons. 

23. A nutmeg-grater. 

24. A group of marbles. 

25. Potato on a twig that would bend. 

26. Bones apart over a rind. 

27. A red letter C. and carpenter's planes beyond. 

28. A hoopskirt behind the door. 

29. Corset. 

30. Corn (horse fare). 

31. Shells. 

32. Cabbage. 

23. An old, worn-out shoe. 

34. Sixteen sticks of candy. 

35. A match. 

36. Hogs' tails (three or four). 

37. Candles. 

38. An awl in a pan of water. 

39. Broken dishes. 



SOCIALS AND GAMES. 65 



40. 


A beet. 


41. 


Cheese. 


42. 


Salt, pepper, vinegar, mustard. 


43- 


Gimlet. 


44. 


Bacon. 


45- 


Potatoes. 


46. 


A bundle of switches. 


47- 


Ham let alone. 


48. 


Figures of sealing-wax. 


49- 


Egg- 


50. 


Cigars. 


5»- 


Several sticks crossed. 


5 2 - 


Several hairs in some butter. 


53- 


A pair of pants stuffed, out at the knees. 


54- 


A tooth. 


55- 


A fine comb. 


56. 


Onions. 


57. 


Knitting-needles. 


58. 


Mackerel tails. 


59- 


" Wethair." 


60. 


Molasses. 


61. 


Pipe. 


62. 


Bridle. 


63- 


Rooster. 


64. 


Snuffers. 


65. 


Needles and flatirons. 


66. 


An old shoe half-soled. 


67. 


Bottle of whiskey. 


68. 


Money. 




A HEART PARTY. 


This form of social will be appropriate to St. Val- 


entine's Day. Make a large red heart of flannel and 


pin it 


upon a sheet hung from a door. In the centre of 


the heart sew a small circle of white. Give to each 


one present an arrow made of white cloth, and also a 



66 SOCIAL — TO SAVE. 

pin. Each arrow is to be numbered, corresponding 
numbers being given to the guests. 

The members of the company are to be blindfolded 
in turn, and are to be led up to the sheet, upon which 
they pin their arrows as near as possible to the cen- 
tre of the heart. Prizes are to be given to the one 
that comes nearest to the bull's eye, and the one that 
comes farthest from it. Appropriate prizes would be 
a heart-shaped pincushion, a heart-shaped photo- 
graph frame or pin, or a box of bonbons. For the 
booby prize, an appropriate symbol would be a 
Brownie holding a tiny heart, with an arrow in- 
scribed " Try, try again," or a pincushion made of 
red satin shaped like a beet. 

COMMERCE. 

This is a bit of nonsense that may serve to break 
the ice at the opening of a social. 

Each player is given ten beans and seven pieces of 
pasteboard upon which numbers are written, these 
numbers ranging from one to three hundred, if the 
company is large. Three minutes are given for trad- 
ing, that is, for exchanging several beans for a cer- 
tain number, the game being to get the most beans 
or the number one thinks will be the fortunate one. 

At the end of this time, the leader calls for number 
5, and all multiples of that, of course it being the 
leader's option what numbers he shall call in. Three 
minutes more trading are allowed, and then the 
leader may call in all numbers containing the figure 
seven, no multiples this time. The game proceeds 



SOCIALS AND GAMES. 67 

in this way until only one number is left. The names 
of the holder of this and of the one that has the most 
beans are announced. 

The social committee will, of course, have to ar- 
range beforehand the numbers to be called in, and 
it will take some one of a mathematical mind so to 
arrange it that only one number will be left. 

OLD-FASHIONED SPELLING-MATCHES. 

Many of our societies may like to hold old-fash- 
ioned spelling-matches, but these diversions are so 
very old-fashioned that there are not a few societies, 
as I know from my correspondence, that do not 
understand how such a match was conducted, and 
so I am sure the following directions will be found 
useful. 

A good speller should be chosen to give out the 
words, for the reason that only a good speller will 
understand what words present the greatest and what 
the least difficulty. He should, of course, be one 
familiar with the dictionary, and he should provide 
himself beforehand with a list of especially puzzling 
words, to be used when he wishes to seal the fate of 
long-standing contestants. 

He calls the meeting to order, appoints his leaders, 
and these, standing up, take turns in calling to their 
side first one and then another, until all who desire 
to spell have been called out. Only two sides should 
spell at once. If you try to carry on two spelling- 
matches, the audience will be confused. If more 
? 7 ish to spell than can be accommodated at one game, 



65 SOCIAL — TO SAVE. 

they should be divided into two parts, one spelling 
first, the other division second, and the victorious in 
each contest spelling against each other. 

The sides being ranged opposite each other, the 
leader gives out words, alternating between the sides. 
When one player misses the correct spelling, he sits 
down, and the player opposite him is given an op- 
portunity to try the same, and so the game proceeds 
until only one is left standing. 

Pronouncing-matches are carried on in the same 
way, except that the leader spells the words, while 
the players pronounce. Rhyming-matches are carried 
on after the following fashion : the leader, who should 
be apt at rhyming, of course, repeats a line of poetry, 
making it up. Within a certain length of time the 
first player must complete the couplet with a line of 
similar length, rhyming with the leader's. If he fails, 
the opposite side is given an opportunity ; and so it 
goes, like a spelling-match. 

WEIGHTS AND AGES. 

Arrange in a row the young women, and the 
young men in a row fronting them, having, if possi- 
ble, an equal number on each side, unless some young 
man takes the place of a young woman, or vice versa. 

Each young man must now write upon his card 
first his own age ; second, his guess as to the correct 
weight of the young woman who faces him ; and 
third, his estimate of the combined weight of all the 
young women on the opposite side. Each young 
woman must write on her slip her guess as to the age 



SOCIALS AND GAMES. 69 

of the young man facing her, her own weight, and her 
estimate of the combined age of the opposite side. 
Five minutes are given in which to make the guesses. 
The slips are then taken up, two or more persons 
being selected for this purpose. These tellers find 
the sum of the ages and of the weights, and of the 
guesses as to each. The side which wins is the one 
whose guesses, added together, approach most nearly 
the truth. The young man who guesses the nearest 
the combined ages of the young women, and the 
young woman who guesses most nearly the combined 
weights of the other side, also receive honorable men- 
tion, while those whose guesses are farthest removed 
from the truth may also be named, together with the 
estimates . 

AN INTRODUCTION SOCIAL. 

Let each member of the society wear a printed 
badge giving his name, and his office or committee 
in the society, if he has one. In a similar way adorn 
the visitors with badges on which their names are 
written in large letters. Seek to have present at the 
social as many of these visitors as possible, sending 
them special invitations. After an informal chat, let 
the secretary call the roll of the society, beginning 
with the president and the rest of the officers, and 
passing on to the committees and the other mem- 
bers. 

As each name is called, let the Endeavorer who 
owns it take his place in a row stretching along one 
side of the room. Thus the society as a whole will 
be brought face to face with the other persons pres- 



70 SOCIAL TO SAVE. 

ent that are not members, and the pastor in a few 
words introduces this body to all the others, and 
adds an earnest invitation to all present to join the 
society. He closes with an urging to mutual ac- 
quaintance, saying that no introduction will be con- 
sidered necessary, as the badges will tell the names 
of all. The result of such a social will be quite likely 
to be new recruits for the society. 

A STATISTICAL SOCIAL. 
Give each person that attends the social a card 
containing ten printed questions with spaces for 
answers, and a lead pencil. Set a certain time 
during which these questions are to be answered. 
Promptly at the expiration of the time, gather the 
cards and hand them to the committee for examina- 
tion. While this committee is preparing its report, 
either hold a musical and literary entertainment, or 
serve refreshments. Here is a sample card ; the 
italics show the way the Card was filled at one social 
where the plan was tried. 

Young People's Society of Christian 
Endeavor. 

FIRST CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH, AMHERST, 

STATISTICS SOCIAL. 

Please prepare answers to the following questions. The 
results of the voting, together with the most noteworthy 
answers, will be announced later in the evening. 



SOCIALS AND GAMES. 7 1 

i. Who is your favorite author? 
Papa, when he writes the checks. 

2. At what historical event would you most like to haverjeen 

present ? 
When my father proposed to my mother. 

3. What is your favorite flower ? 
Cauliflower. 

4. What do you consider the height of felicity ? 
To be asleep, and yet be aware of it. 

5. What is the most unfortunate position in which you could 

be placed ? 
On my head. 

6. Do you esteem married life preferable to single life, and 

why? 
Yes, because there is twice as much of it. 

7. What character or person of every-day life could the world 

dispense with most advantageously ? 
The chaperon. 

8. What is your favorite tune ? 

The tune my mother's slipper used to play. 

9. Whom do you think to be the most sensible man that ever 

lived ? 
The man who agrees with me. 
lo e Would you change your sex if you could, and why ? Indi- 
cate present sex by writing "male" or "female" after 
yp^ur answer. 
Male. No, because I should be changing a certainty for 
an uncertainty. 

On questions 1, 3, 6, 8, and 10 -he statistics are to 
be summed up. In the social referred to, Longfellow 
was found to be the favorite author ; sunflower the 
favorite flower, with " Pillsbury's best" a close sec- 
ond ; married life decidedly preferable to single life ; 
Yankee Doodle, the favorite tune ; and far more 



72 SOCIAL TO SAVE. 

young women dissatisfied with their sex than young 
men. The committee, while examining the papers 
for these statistics, noted the funniest answers and 
read them to the company. After the report of the 
committee, the cards that have been filled out are 
to be distributed among the Endeavorers, and carried 
home as pleasant souvenirs. Of course some time 
will be occupied by each Endeavorer in seeking to 
discover who wrote the card given him. 

A BABY SOCIAL. 

Cover the walls with pictures of the members of 
the society in their baby days. These are to be 
numbered, and the members, furnished with slips of 
paper bearing the numbers along the edge, are to 
guess at the identity of the various pictures, handing 
in their lists. The best guesser will receive honor- 
able mention. A vote (by ballot !) may also be taken 
as to which member was the prettiest baby, which 
the most amusing, and which the ugliest ! 

A TENNIS SOCIAL. 

String a tennis net firmly along a large room, 
with space, of course, at the ends, where the mem- 
bers may pass. Cut a hundred pieces of cardboard 
in the shape of little racquets about three inches 
long, and number them from one up to a hundred. 
Pin upon the guests small tags numbered in the same 
way, giving the young women the even, and v the 
young men the odd, as far as possible. The card- 
board racquets will previously have been fastened 



SOCIALS AND GAMES. 73 

together with strings about thirty feet long, an odd 
racquet at one end, and an even racquet at the other, 
and the string intertwined among the meshes of the 
tennis net. Fifty of these strings will, of course, be 
needed. 

At a given signal all the guests start to find rac- 
quets numbered to correspond with their tags, and 
will then proceed to disentangle the string. The 
couple whose racquets are first untangled will be ac- 
corded the palm. It may safely be announced at the 
beginning that every contestant will find a prize at 
the end of his string ! 

A NOVEL CONVERSATION SOCIAL. 

A novel form of conversation social may thus be 
arranged. As the guests enter, give each a card on 
which is written the topics of five-minute conversa- 
tions that are to be begun at the tapping of a bell. 
All the cards will be numbered differently. Follow- 
ing each topic on every paper will be a number cor- 
responding to the namber of the card with whose 
owner that conversation is to be held. 

The master of ceremonies will announce as the law 
for the evening that no one, during any five minutes 
of the evening, is to speak to any 07ie except the per- 
son designated for that five minutes upon his card. 
In case he does so, a forfeit is to be collected by the 
social committee, to be redeemed at the close of the 
evening. The discovery of the person who alone 
can unbar the doors of speech must be made, of 
course, by pantomime. 



74 SOCIAL — TO SAVE. . 

MISSIONARY BOOK SOCIAL. 

This social should not be confined to the member- 
ship of the Endeavor society, but the entire church 
should be invited. Urge every one who comes to 
bring a good missionary book, or, in lieu of that, the 
money to buy one. These books will furnish the 
nucleus of a Christian Endeavor missionary library, 
or they may go to the Sunday school. The enter- 
tainment of the evening should be arranged along 
missionary lines. Endeavorers dressed in the cos- 
tumes of various missionary lands may give recita- 
tions and talks regarding those countries. Songs 
may be sung in various languages. Curiosities may 
be obtained from the different mission fields, fur- 
nishing a booth for each country, and from these 
booths may be served the various eatables of these 
foreign lands. 

STRANGERS' SOCIALS. 

At a time when there seem to be a large number 
of strangers present in the neighborhood, hold a 
social especially for their benefit. In some way or 
other, try to introduce all of the society to all the 
strangers. At any rate, make them feel thoroughly 
at home, and seek to interest them in the society 
and in the church. In this way you may gain some 
new members, and your society will be greatly bene- 
fited simply by making the endeavor. 

A QUOTATION SOCIAL. 

In announcing the social ask the members, each 
of them, to commit to memorv beforehand three quo- 



SOCIALS AND GAMES. 75 

tations. The company having gathered with these 
quotations, they repeat them in order, and the mem- 
bers are bidden to name the authors of the quota- 
tions. The first who gives correctly the author of 
any quotation repeated should receive a favor, either 
a flower, or a bright-colored ribbon that can be tied 
in the button-hole. At the close, the one who is 
most abundantly decorated will be considered the 
hero of the evening. 

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS. 

This social requires some preliminary work on the 
part of the social committee. They must prepare 
a lot of questions on slips of paper, and on another 
set of slips a set of answers, the latter being written 
with no regard to the former ; both questions and 
answers must be as different as possible. Arrange 
the company in two long lines facing each other. 
Give to the members on one side the questions and 
to those on the other side the answers, distributing 
them at random. 

At a given signal the two at the head of the lines 
will step forward, shake hands, and say, " Good- 
morning." The one who holds the question will ask 
it, and the one who holds the answer will then re- 
peat that. This must be repeated three times with- 
out the ghost of a smile. To laugh when asking or 
answering a question will send one to the foot. 

A HARVEST SOCIAL. 

The society will have no difficulty in getting up 
this social. The room should be decorated with 



76 SOCIAL — TO SAVE. 

autumn leaves, corn-stalks, sheaves of wheat and 
other grains, great heaps of squashes, pumpkins, 
and the like. There are many pretty songs con- 
nected with harvest ; such a poem as Whittier's 
" Mabel Martin" might be read, and illustrated by 
tableaux or by shadow pictures. A feature of the 
evening may be the requirement of certain quantities 
of fruit or vegetables for the admission fee, and these 
might be given to the poor people of the neighbor- 
hood. 

Here is a capital programme for a harvest evening, 
arranged by Alice May Douglas : — 
Instrumental Music. 

Recitation: " The Last Rose of Summer." Moore. 
Singing. 

Original Essay: " Harvest Time and Customs." 
Recitation: " The Death of the Flowers." Bryant. 
Recitation: " Farewell to the Flowers." Mrs. Sigourney 
Singing. 
' Original Essay: " Indian Summer." 
Recitation: " Autumn Flowers." Caroline Southey. 
Instrumental Music. 
Declamation. (Subject optional.) 
Singing. 

Recitation: "October," Bryant. 
Reading: " The Huskers." Whittier. 
Singing. 
Recitation: "The Child and the Autumn Leaf." 

Lover. 
Debate: " Which is the Pleasanter Season of the Year, 

Summer, or Autumn? " 



SOCIALS AND GAMES. 77 

A RAINBOW FETE. 

The point of this social consists entirely in the 
decorations, and games of any kind may be added. 
The room in which the social is to be held should be 
decorated with all the colors of the rainbow. Lunch 
should be served at the small tables, each table 
being decorated in one of the seven rainbow colors. 
Flowers of corresponding colors should be placed on 
the tables. The shades on the lamps, the napkins 
and the like, as well as the caps and aprons of the 
waitresses, should all correspond to the color of 
the table. 

SOCIAL GROUPS. 

A splendid way to promote sociability in the 
Christian Endeavor society is to divide the society 
into social groups of say ten each. The object is for 
the members of these groups to spend an informal 
evening together at least once a quarter, the groups 
being formed anew each quarter. The purpose kept 
in view is to bring together those that do not ordi- 
narily associate with one another. Names of new 
members might be placed the first quarter in more 
than one group, so that they may the more quickly 
become acquainted with their co-laborers. The pas- 
tor and his wife should be invited to meet with all of 
the groups they can. The gathering may be held in 
a private house, but the entertainment should be pro- 
vided by the social committee, and those whom they 
may summon to their assistance. 



>]8 SOCIAL — TO SAVE. 



RECIPROCAL. 

A pleasant feature of a Christian Endeavor social 
would be the plan of setting the young men to writ- 
ing jingles on some bird and the young women to 
writing little poems on some flower. One Baptist 
society I heard of varied this amusement by asking 
the young women to write on the young men, and 
vice versa. These jingles are all thrown into a heap, 
and a good reader appointed to read them, one among 
the young men to read those of the young women, 
and a young lady to read those written by the oppo- 
site sex. After each is read there may be guesses as 
to its authorship, and the company may, on the con- 
clusion of the whole, vote as to which is the best. 

SONGS IN PICTURES. 

Give each member of the company a slip of paper 
on which has been written the title of some well- 
known song, furnishing him also with pencil and a 
piece of drawing paper. The task set before him is 
to illustrate on the drawing paper the song whose 
name has been given him. Of course only the most 
familiar songs should be chosen. The slip of paper 
contains a number, and the drawing is to be num- 
bered to correspond. When all have finished this 
artistic work, the drawings are to be fastened by pins 
upon a string tightly stretched across one end of the 
room at a height convenient to be seen. 

Next, every member of the company receives a slip 
of paper bearing upon its left edge a column of figures 
corresponding to the numbers upon the slips origi- 



SOCIALS AND GAMES. 79 

nally distributed, and the Endeavorers are required 
to move along the line of drawings, writing upon the 
paper the names of the songs intended to be illus- 
trated, so far as they can guess them. These papers 
when completed are handed in to the social commit- 
tee, who examines them, and honors in some appro- 
priate way the best as well as the worst of the 
guessers. 

A QUEER COURT. 

All societies by this time are familiar with the 
plan of having their members each try to earn a dol- 
lar by a certain time, and then tell at a social how 
the dollar has been earned. A pleasing variety of 
this plan is to have the society on the appointed even- 
ing resolve itself into a court. The chairman of the 
social committee may act as district attorney, and the 
pastor as the judge. Divide the members that have 
earned their dollar into two companies. Require the 
members of the first company to set before the soci- 
ety, in plain or elaborate fashion, as they desire, how 
their dollars have been earned. A jury previously 
appointed retires after the close of the recitals, and 
comes back bringing a verdict declaring which one 
of the members earned the dollar in the best way. 
In the same way the remaining division are tried, 
and one found similarly "guilty." 

Next these two " guilty" ones are required to 
choose, each of them, a lawyer from among the 
young men. These lawyers have to plead their 
cases, each trying to prove that his client has earned 
the dollar in the best way. At the close of the pleas 



80 SOCIAL TO SAVE. 

the judge charges the jury, which retires to find a 
verdict for one of the two. The one who is found 
"guilty" is sentenced to accept a handsome little 
present from the social committee for his earnest 
endeavors. 

It adds a little fun, if the society is well balanced 
as to sex, to make up the first company entirely of 
young women, and the second entirely of young men. 
The young woman found "guilty" is compelled to 
choose a lawyer from the opposite sex, and vice 
versa. It only remains to say that the company of 
Endeavorers is to sing hymns while the jury is out. 

AN EVENING IN GREENLAND. 

Decorate the room in which the social is held 
with paper icicles. All the decorations, and the cos- 
tumes of the social committee, should remind one 
of ice and snow. Ices will make appropriate refresh- 
ments. Papers and talks should be given discussing 
the country, and the habits of the people. Poems 
on Jack Frost, snow, and similar frigid subjects 
may be recited, and songs concerning cold weather, 
sleighing, and the like, may be sung. Of course, 
such a social as this is most fittingly held in mid- 
summer. 

A NUT SOCIAL. 

The feature of the evening that gives its name to 
the social is the following puzzle. Copies of it, made 
on a manifolder, are to be handed about, and given 
to each person in the room. 



SOCIALS AND GAMES. 8 1 

Nuts to Crack. 

i. Lazhe 

2. Pance 

3. Hlabselkr 

4. Madlon 

5. Ecbeh 

6. Hogtundu 

7. Chykoir 

8. Noarc 

9. Buntruett 

10. Briftel 

11. Hunttecs 

12. Metung — 

13. Uawltn 

14. Tuocanoc 

jYame 

Number 

At the end of a certain time, the player who has 
most successfully solved the fourteen anagrams, each 
hiding the name of some nut, is accounted the victor. 
Appropriate refreshments at the close of this test will 
be raisins and well-cracked nuts, neatly tied up in 
Japanese napkins. Under the heading of " Nuts to 
Crack," in " Social Evenings," are described further 
amusements appropriate to this social. 

CLASS RECEPTIONS. 

The social committee of a large society will do 
a good thing if occasionally it singles out different 



82 SOCIAL TO SAVE. 

classes of the members, and holds receptions for 
them. For example, the associate members may be 
given a reception, to which the lookout committee 
alone may be invited, in addition to the associates. 
Another reception may be given in honor of the hon- 
orary members. Another reception may be given to 
the older young people that are not members. The 
older society may give a reception to the Juniors, or 
to the primary class of the Sunday school, and the 
like. Some social may be distinguished by the 
presence, on special invitation, of all the church of- 
ficers. 

ORANGE SOCIALS. 

Decorate the room with white and yellow cheese- 
cloth, and with orange-colored tissue paper, worked 
in fantastic shapes. Deck small tables with white 
tissue paper and amber glass. The orange tissue 
paper will appear here also, in the form of napkins 
prettily arranged. The waiters will wear orange- 
colored aprons and dainty orange caps. The re- 
freshments will consist of oranges and sponge-cake, 
while the entertainment of the evening will be made 
up of talks by those who have visited the South and 
other orange-growing countries, and who will tell 
about the fruit and its surroundings . Attractive 
music will add to the festivities. 

A hit-or-miss social. 
To arouse curiosity, send out invitations to this 
focial, calling it a " hit-or-miss social," and placing 



SOCIALS AND GAMES. 8$ 

in the corner confused dashes of different colored 
paints. Various hit-or-miss games will make up the 
amusement of the evening, The first is "hit-or- 
miss questions and answers," briefly described in 
" Social Evenings. 1 ' Two boxes are provided, with 
holes in the covers through which hands can be 
thrust, drawing forth all kinds of odd-shaped bits of 
paper, — stars, circles, triangles, ovals, etc. Each 
piece of paper bears a word. 

The Endeavorers are furnished with pencils, and 
instructed to write on their bits of paper two ques- 
tions about the object named thereon. On the other 
side of the paper, without mentioning the name of 
the object, each Is to write two remarks regarding it. 
The questions may contain the name of the object, 
but it should be especially announced that this name 
must not appear in the remarks. 

After this has been accomplished, the players are 
instructed to hunt out, each of them, a player with 
the same shaped paper (there being two papers of 
each shape). Then, the company being quieted, 
one player of each couple reads the questions he has 
written, and the other player answers each question 
with one of the remarks he has written. Of course, 
the questions and remarks being upon different sub- 
jects, the result will be extremely amusing. In the 
case of one evening where this game was tried, as 
described in The YontJCs Companion, one girl, hold- 
ing one of these matched c^rds, inquired if her part- 
ner did not love pansies. His reply was that they 
were savage creatures, and that he had once seen 



84 SOCIAL TO SAVE. 

one which had killed a man. Then in his turn he 
asked his partner questions on panthers, and she de- 
clared that she kept them in every room of the house 
all summer; her mother raised splendid great ones 
in the garden. One young man whose remarks were 
upon needle-work was questioned upon the Battle of 
Gettysburg, and asserted that it was " well enough 
for girls," but "as for me, give me something more 
stirring." 

A " hit-or-miss conversation" is next in order. 
Each member of the company draws from a box a 
slip of paper which will bear a number and a subject 
for conversation. Six or seven of these slips will 
bear the same number and the same topic, and thus 
the room will be divided into groups discussing 
different subjects. 

"Hit-or-miss characters" affords a third amuse- 
ment. A large sheet of cardboard is pinned against 
the wall, and upon it are fastened what seem to be 
immense autumn leaves, gorgeously painted. The 
members are blind-folded, one after the other, and 
marched up to the cardboard. Thrusting out a hand, 
each places it on one of these leaves, which becomes 
the property of the player. Upon the back of it 
is written a character, and the player reads aloud 
the description of himself thus drawn. 

As the guests leave the room, each takes from 
a basket a " hit-or-miss souvenir." These consist 
of bright paper, prettily cut and folded, and tied 
with baby ribbon. On the inside are written mot- 
toes and good wishes. 



SOCIALS AND GAMES. 85 

INTRODUCTIONS. 
A pleasant feature of a Christian Endeavor social 
where many strangers are present will be the forming 
of two long lines which are introduced to one an- 
other, and after this thorough fashion : The two at 
the head of the column start and shake hands all 
down through the rows, introducing themselves to 
every one else in the room ; and they are followed 
by the others in turn. 

MISSIONARY GAMES. 

Our societies are so greatly interested in mis- 
sions, and already have so much missionary infor- 
mation, that games based upon this knowledge may 
be undertaken without fear of failure. For ex- 
ample, "countries and characters' 1 may be played, 
after the fashion of the familiar game of " beast, 
bird and fish" described in "Social Evenings. " 
One player throws a knotted handkerchief to an- 
other and calls out, "Africa, 1 ' "China," "India," 
or some other mission land, then counts ten, if 
possible, before the second player can name some 
w T orker or some place connected with the country 
specified. 

Another game is to decide upon some letter, and 
then have a contest to see what Endeavorer in 
the room can in a certain time write the longest 
list of names of places or persons, in mission coun- 
tries, beginning with that letter. 

The familiar "geography game' 1 can be played 
upon a missionary basis, the company being ar- 



86 SOCIAL — TO SAVE. 

ranged in two groups, a letter being taken, and 
each group shouting to the other in turn the name 
of some town or other geographical feature, in 
mission lands, beginning with the required letter. 
As each group shouts out its name, the other group 
must reply before the leader can count ten deliber- 
ately. In case of failure, one player is chosen from 
the group that has failed, and passes over to the 
other side, and after a new letter is fixed upon the 
game proceeds until one side is entirely annihilated. 

GERMAN SOCIALS. 

The German social is, in every particular, like 
the better-known Scotch social. If lunch is served, 
the waiters are dressed as Germans. The guests, 
as they enter, are to be received by young maidens 
and old ladies dressed in German attire, and using 
German phrases with as great freedom as they can. 

The programme of the evening consists of recita- 
tions and songs in the German language, together 
with talks or essays about great Germans, and reci- 
tations of some German poems translated into Eng- 
lish. Pictures of German authors and composers 
may adorn the walls. The instrumental music 
should also be by Germans. The refreshments that 
are served should partake as largely as possible of 
the same national flavor. 

IT RESTS. 

This is a clever catch that would serve to enliven 
a Christian Endeavor social, filling in the space be- 



SOCIALS AND GAMES. 87 

tween more dignified games. To accomplish the 
trick it is necessary that two of the players know 
the secret and work together. One of these may 
leave the room, but before he does so both the 
confederates should notice who is the last person 
to speak. The door being closed, the inside player 
puts his hand on some one's head and cries out, " It 
rests." This he does with a second person, and 
again with a third, selecting this time the person 
who spoke last before the confederate withdrew, 
and cries out, " On whom does it rest ?" To the 
astonishment of the company, the person in the 
other room will at once name the Endeavorer thus 
selected. The performance can be repeated many 
times before the company will guess how it is carried 
on. 

STEAMBOAT'S COMING 1 

To play this lively and profitable game, let the 
company be seated in a circle. A handkerchief is 
knotted into a loose ball that can be thrown effec- 
tively. 

Some one takes this ball and throws it at any one 
he chooses, saying, "Steamboat's coming! What's 
it loaded with ? " The person who is hit must at 
once reply with the name of an article not already 
given in the course of the game, and beginning with 
a certain letter previously determined on. In case 
he fails before ten is counted by the one who threw 
the ball, he pays a forfeit. 

This game is quite a brisk one, as the thrower 
may indulge in as many feints as he chooses before 



88 SOCIAL TO SAVE. 

he throws the ball, and the counting of the ten will 
serve as quite a perplexing source of confusion. 

PROGRESSIVE GAMES. 

Where the society meets in a Sunday-school room 
built after the modern style with classrooms opening 
on the sides of the room, this social may be arranged 
with little trouble. It is easily carried on where the 
social is held in a private house. If only one room 
is at the disposal of the social committee, it should 
be partitioned off with shawls and sheets into, say, 
five smaller rooms. 

As the members enter, each is decorated with a 
card which reads, "Room i," or "Room 2," or 
" 3," or " 4," pr "5." Each of these cards admits 
the member bearing it into one of the rooms, the 
rooms being numbered ; and here he finds some one 
who directs those assembled in the playing of some 
special game. At the tap of a bell, all the Endeav- 
orers pass to the room immediately above them in 
the order of number, and play the games that hold 
sway in those rooms. Of course the social commit- 
tee will so plan the games as to have a pleasing vari- 
ety, and will place in superintendence of each room 
one perfectly familiar with the game to De played 
there during the evening. In this way the Endeav- 
orers pass around the circle, until it comes time for 
refreshments. 

A SCRIPTURE AUTOGRAPH SOCIAL. 

Every one present is to be presented with a small 
blank book in which he is to get the other members 



SOCIALS AND GAMES. 89 

of the company to write Scripture quotations. Each 
must sign his name to the quotation he gives. After 
the books are well filled, call for quiet and bid the 
Endeavorers read, in turn, the quotations that have 
been given them, calling for the names of the books 
of the Bible from which the quotations are taken. 
Let the secretary keep account, and announce, after 
all are through, who has been the first to name cor- 
rectly the largest number of books. 

MIND-READING. 

In " Social Evenings," there are given a variety 
of methods of carrying on the amusing catch called 
" mind-reading," but here is an exceedingly puzzling 
method not named in that book. Ask each of those 
who are to engage in the game to write upon a slip 
of paper the name of something. Put all these 
names in a box, and let the mind-reader draw from 
it the slips, rubbing each slip against his forehead, 
and, after a pretended rumination, naming what is 
written. 

The first time he names the object he himself 
wrote, opens the paper as if for confirmation, and 
reads, of course, not what he, but what some one 
else wrote. With the second slip he names this 
object, proceeding thus until the last. Of course all 
in the room will agree that he has named precisely 
what they wrote, and it will be long before they guess 
how the feat was accomplished. The reader must 
take care to select last of all the slip he himself 
wrote, and the slips must be nearly enough alike, 



90 SOCIAL — TO SAVE. 

and folded in so uniform a way, that no one will rec- 
ognize his own slip. 

SHIP SOCIAL TICKETS. 
In " Social Evenings,' 1 I have described quite 
thoroughly a ship social. Some Endeavorers have 
got up attractive tickets which harmonize with this 
form of social, and many societies will like to use 
one of the two following : 

TRANSFERABLE. 
No. 1822 B. 

First Presbyterian Steamship Co. 



CABIN. 
M 



• STEAMER 
GOLDEN GATE. 

Promise Fairweather, Captain. 

Voyage, Thursday, September 27, 

8 P.M. 



CONDITIONS. 
In the event of the loss or detention of the ship, during the 
voyage, by any of the accidents of navigation or dangers of the 
sea, no liability of any kind shall attach to company ; neither 
shall said company be under any obligation to forward passen- 
gers to their respective homes at close of voyage ; neither shall 
they be responsible for any seasickness, nor refund the amount 
of passage. 



SOCIALS AND GAMES. 9 1 

Baggage, other than the regulation shopping-satchel, will not 
be received. 

The above steamer, Golden Gate, will receive passengers at 
pier, corner Van Ness Avenue and Sacramento Street, on 
Thursday Evening, at 8 o'clock. 



Good for THIS VOYAGE ONLY. 

Fare, 25 cents. 
Thomas Chink, Ernest Shipman, 

Purser. G. P. & T. A. 



W. A. Y. P. S. C. E. Line. 


£ . 








This Ticket Entitles Holder to 


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One First-Class Passage 

ON 


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Ship ENDEA VOR 


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Sails from Company's Landing, 


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Walnut Avenue, Wednesday, 
Feb. 6, 1895, at 8 p.m. 


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Stops tnade at " Tete-a-tete Pier," "Point 


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£ : * 


Cheerup" and "Social Town" 

B. E. Merrie, G. P. A. 




i 





THEIR WEIGHT. 

This contest will make pleasant material to fill 
some interval in your socials. Let the committee 
previously gather six articles as dissimilar as may 
be in size, shape, and material, but each weighing a 
pound. You may take, for instance, a wooden pail, 
a tin pan, a piece of lead. Call out different mem- 
bers of the company, and request them to arrange 
these six articles in the order of their weight. Of 
course almost every one will think the large articles 



92 ' SOCIAL — TO SAVE. 

to be the heaviest. Keep this up until the interest in 
the matter flags, or until some one guesses the truth. 

POETICAL DESCRIPTIONS. 

An interesting game is based on poetical descrip- 
tions of famous persons. A large number of these 
are copied from well-known writers. Each is placed 
at the bottom of a slip of paper. The players begin 
at the top of the slip, and write, in turn, the names 
of the persons supposed to be described by the quota- 
tions, turning the paper over so as to hide what each 
has written from the one to whom he passes it. For 
example, a recent party wrestled with this from 
Tennyson : — 

" A thousand claims to reverence closed 
In her as mother, wife, and queen." 

This, of course, referred to Queen Victoria, but one 

jocose player guessed that it referred to Liliuokalani. 

Again, another quotation was used from Lowell : — 

" The kindly, earnest, brave, foreseeing man, 
Sagacious, patient, dreading praise, not blame, 
New birth of our new soil, the first American." 

This referred, of course, to Abraham Lincoln, but a 
few of the players got it George Washington. 

Here are a few more samples : — 

u I need not praise the sweetness of his song 
Where limpid verse to limpid verse succeeds 
Smooth as our Charles." 

[Referring to Longfellow.] 



SOCIALS AND GAMES. 93 

" This laurel, greener from the brows 
Of him that uttered nothing base." 

[Tennyson on Wordsworth.] 

u Westward still points the inexorable soul." 

•"Columbus.] 

" He seems to me 
Scarce other than my own ideal knight, 
Who reverenced his conscience as his king; 
Whose glory was, redressing human wrong ; 
Who spoke no slander, no, nor listened to it ; 
Who loved one only, and who clave to her." 

[Prince Albert.] 

" The man of amplest influence, 
Yet clearest of ambitious crime, 
Our greatest yet with least pretence, 
Great in council and great in war, 
Foremost captain of his time, 
Rich in saving common sense, 
And, as the greatest only are, 
In his simplicity sublime." 

[Wellington.] 

" . . . The first warbler, whose sweet breath 
Preluded those melodious bursts that fill 
The spacious times of great Elizabeth 
With sounds that echo still." [Chaucer.] 

u In a small chamber, friendless and unseen, 
Toiled o'er his types one poor, unlearned young man ; 
The place was dark, unfurnitured, and mean ; — 
Yet there the freedom of a race began." 

[Garrison.] 



94 



SOCIAL — TO SAVE. 





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EXAMINERS: 
Local Society, E. L. of C. E. 
Rev. W. J. Hunter, D.D., Past 
W. F. Irwin, President. 


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96 SOCIAL TO SAVE. 

The regulations printed upon the examination 
paper are self-explanatory. Notice the requirement, 
" Students may take any six of the following sub- 
jects." As only six subjects are laid down, the point 
is obvious. A special introduction committee is to 
be moving constantly about among the company, in- 
troducing one to another, and helping the guests fill 
up their papers, when they can find no one from 
whom to copy. 

The examination paper that each Endeavorer 
works upon bears the name of some other student, 
and for this reason each person will be especially 
anxious to fill up the examination paper on which he 
is working, in order that the other fellow may not get 
a medal for the greatest number of errors, or for the 
fewest questions answered, and, besides, each tries 
to hand in his paper to the examiners as early as 
possible, in order that the Endeavorer for whom he 
is working may not receive a medal for the last paper 
filed. Of course each Endeavorer hopes that the 
paper on which his own name occurs will, through 
the slowness or carelessness of the other members, 
receive one or more of these medals. 

The plan is somewhat complicated, but I hope I 
have made it plain. The medals are made, one of 
wood, one of brass, and one of leather. Stamped 
upon each may be the words, "Exam. Social." 

A QUILTING PARTY. 

If you are fortunate enough to have any old people 
m your church that can tell you about the old-fash- 



SOCIALS AND GAMES. 97 

ioned quilting-bees, you will have great fun in 
carrying on one yourself. Place upon frames the 
comfortables ready to be tied. Require every one to 
tie at least ten knots. After the completion of this 
work, have recitations of old-fashioned poems, such 
as those by Will Carleton, and close with old-time 
refreshments, such as pop-corn, hickory nuts, mo- 
lasses candy, and apples. 

A HOME MISSION SOCIAL. 

Socials based upon foreign missions are common, 
but there are not many based upon home missions. 
To get up a good home mission social, let different 
members of the society agree to represent, on that 
evening, an Indian, an African, a Chinaman, a Mor- 
mon, a Mountain White, a Jew, a Russian, and others 
of the classes among whom our home missionaries 
work. All these are to make five-minute speeches in 
the characters they represent, describing their lives, 
and incidentally hinting that they need missionary 
work, and the good to be obtained from it. Appro- 
priate songs may enliven the programme. 

THROWING THE HANDKERCHIEF. 

All the persons present are seated in a circle 
about the room, with the exception of the leader, 
who stands in the centre. A handkerchief is knotted 
and thrown from one member of the circle to another. 
The leader attempts to catch it in its rapid flight. 
If he succeeds,. the person who threw the handker- 
chief must take his place in the centre, and strive in 
his turn to catch the flying missile. 



98 SOCIAL — TO SAVE. 

THE KEY TO CHARACTER. 

Take a common door-key and give it to one of 
the members, at the same time whispering to him, 
and telling him to -give it to some else of the com- 
pany who possesses a certain characteristic. Having 
made selection, this player hands it to a second 
player, whispering in his ear instructions that he is 
to hand the key to some one else in the company 
possessing another kind of qualification ; and so the 
key goes around until a large number have received it. 

Then each one speaks in turn, the first player say- 
ing, for example, " I gave this key to Mr. A, and told 
him to give it to the wittiest person in the room." 
Mr. A says, " I gave this key to Miss B, and told 
her to give it to the greatest mimic in the room." 
Miss B says, " I gave this key to Mr. C, and told him 
to give it to the person who was to become a great 
orator " ; and so it goes. Of course, the fun lies in the 
appropriateness or absurdity of the choice made to 
fit each requirement. In a company of Endeavorers, 
there will, of course, be no fear that any ill-natured 
hits will be made, or that anything will occur to 
wound the feelings of any player. 

OLD MAIDS' REPAIR -SHOP. 

This is a pretty little pantomime, which may be 
used to introduce a social, or to fill up some interval. 
Thirteen old maids march in along one end of the 
room, their faces all wrinkled; and they are dressed 
in all kinds of queer ways. They grieve over their 
ugliness, and wring their hands in despair. Their 



SOCIALS AND GAMES. 99 

actions may be interpreted by some Endeavorer in 
a bright little speech, or, if any one of the society is 
sufficiently skilled, a short song may be written for 
them to sing. 

On one side of the room is a curtain, from which 
projects a crank. While the old maids are bemoan- 
ing their fate, the proprietor comes out and hangs 
up a sign reading, " Old Maids' Repair-Shop." This 
sign the old maids see with great rejoicing. One at 
a time approaches the curtain, is received by the pro- 
prietor, and ushered in. He comes out, gives a few 
turns to the crank, and forth steps a beautiful young 
girl, who walks off with great rejoicing, evidently en- 
vied by the other old maids, each of whom in turn 
submits to the same transformation. The last old 
maid so taxes the machine that it breaks with a loud 
noise. 

HARLEQUIN. 

Each person of the company is given a tally card 
tied with a long string, which is double. The string 
is for use in the first game. A list of these games is 
written upon the card, which reads as follows : 

1. Cat's Cradle. 

2. Bean Porridge Hot. 

3. Laughing. 

4. Whistling. 

5. Silence is golden. 

6. Refreshments. 

7. If not yourself, who would you rather be? 
During a given time partners are obtained for 

each of these seven exercises, the names being 



IOO SOCIAL — TO SAVE. 

written opposite the numbers. At the stroke of a 
bell, all begin to play cat's cradle for four or five 
minutes, or less, if thought best. Number 2 and 
number 6 explain themselves. For number 3, the 
members of the company must look at their partners 
and laugh to some familiar tune played on the piano. 
Number 4 is similar. For number 5 the entire com- 
pany must sit in absolute silence. Number 7 is 
conversation on that subject. 

LEMON SOCIALS. 

The social committee will add a pleasing element 
of mystery to the coming social, if in the announce- 
ment of it they require each Endeavorer to bring a 
lemon. It will afterwards be discovered that these 
lemons are to make lemonade. As the lemons are 
handed in at the door, let the committee take charge 
of them, and cut them open. Require each En- 
deavorer present to squeeze his own lemon, lemon- 
squeezers being provided, and to count the number 
of seeds therein. Distinguish in some way those 
whose lemons contain the smallest and the largest 
number of seeds. 

After the lemons have been squeezed, the seeds, 
being carefully separated, should be placed in a 
bottle, and the Endeavorers should be asked to 
guess how many seeds are in the bottle. A suitable 
reward should be given the one who guesses nearest 
the truth, and a booby prize may distinguish the 
poorest guesser. These prizes should be presented 
with comic speeches. 



SOCIALS AND GAMES. IOI 

BIRTHDAY SOCIALS. 

The following invitation to a birthday social will 
describe pretty well the plan of the gathering. With 
these invitations each Endeavorer is to receive a 
pretty little bag of brightly colored silk, in which he 
is expected to place as many pennies as he is years 
old. 

Y. P. S. C. E. Birthday Social. 

At the residence of W. H. Putnam, Monday Evening, 
February 4, 1895. 

This birthday party 

Is given to you ; 
We hope you will come, 

And promise, if you do, 
An agreeable time, 

Some good things to eat, 
And, besides many others, 

A musical treat. 
As we could not secure 

The number of candles, 
To let your light shine, 
. We send this fandangle. 
Put safely within it 

As many round pennies 
As years you are old; 

We hope you are many! 
Your light will be bright 

,If you send it or bring it, 
While we keep it dark, 

If you wish, what is in it. 
The social committee, 

With greetings most hearty, 
Feel sure you will come 

To your own birthday party! 



102 SOCIAL TO SAVE. 

The entertainment for the birthday socials is to 
be prepared beforehand. Discover twelve members 
of the society whose birthdays fall in the twelve 
months of the year, and get these to write, or get 
somebody to write for them, poems upon those 
months, each lauding his as the best month of the 
twelve. Prepare also songs, one for each of the four 
seasons-, and, if thought best, one tableau as well 
for each season. In giving this programme, those 
whose birthdays fall in the spring months will first 
read their poems, then will come the spring song, 
and the spring tableau may close the whole ; and 
so with the other seasons. After the poem for each 
month has been read, those whose birthdays fall in 
that month will go forward and solemnly present 
their bags of pennies. You may close with a debate 
as to the best season in which to have one's birth- 
day ! 

A WISHBONE SOCIAL. 
The society that originated this social provided, 
painted upon pasteboard, the heads and upper por- 
tions of the bodies of two women and two men. 
These were placed on the platform back of a low 
curtain, and so hung that one at a time could be 
raised in view, or all together. The first part of the 
programme was a quartette in which these four comi- 
cal figures took part, one jerking up and singing a 
solo, on the conclusion of which the other three 
added their voices for the chorus. The song, which 
was devised by an ingenious Endeavored was to the 



SOCIALS AND GAMES. 103 

.jUiie of " The bullfrog on the bank, 11 and was a wish- 
bone song, starting with the following verse : — 

"01 wish I owned the moon 
And could use it as I please, 
I'd cut it up in little bits 
And feed the world with cheese," 

the chorus joining in with, 

" Singing tra la la la la la la la la, etc. 
A wish upon a wishbone, at a wishbone social too." 

It will be necessary to provide an encore for the 
quartette ! 

In order to match up for the refreshments, each 
young man was given a card upon which was written 
the name of some person, and each young woman 
another card on which was written the name of 
something that person especially wished for ; for 
example, Alexander, " more worlds to conquer"; 
Richard III., "a horse"; Columbus, " India"; Sir 
John Franklin, " the northwest passage"; Little 
Jack Horner, " a plum " ; Humpty Dumpty, " to get 
up again." Each young man having found what he 
wished for, there is still another ceremony to be ac- 
complished before the refreshment tables are reached. 
A number of cookies cut in the shape of wishbones 
have been provided, and each couple must step to 
the front and wish upon these wishbones. Some 
comical genius attired as a phrenologist will examine 
the head of the successful competitor, and tell what 
he wished for by investigation of the bumps, explain- 



104 SOCIAL TO SAVE. 

ing, in learned phrase, his characteristics to the au- 
dience. Before this loses its interest, permit the 
entire company to go to the refreshment tables. 

A JOURNEY BY MAP. 

The missionary committee may take charge of the 
evening. Much work must be done beforehand. 
Select the route over which the society is to travel, 
with an eye to the missionary interest that may be 
excited and the missionary information that may be 
given. A journey among the missionary fields of 
your own denomination would be best. 

Assign different portions of the route to different 
Endeavorers. One is to describe the start from New 
York, another the ocean voyage, a third the arrival 
on the first mission field and the scenes that there 
will greet the traveller, a fourth should carry the au- 
dience on to a second mission field, and so forth. 
Each guide will provide himself with pictures and 
curios and maps, — whatever will help to make his 
recital vivid. Opportunities for questions may be 
given at the end of each little speech. 

EVERYTHING FROM A NUTSHELL. 
Sell during the evening all kinds of nuts, whole 
or cracked, as well as various kinds of nut-cake, 
hickory-nut, walnut, almond, cocoanut, and so on. 
Salted almonds, drinks made from cocoa, and other 
eatables and drinkables, may be had, and there may 
be sold also various little articles made from nuts, 
such as thimble cases contrived from English walnuts 



SOCIALS AND GAMES. 105 

cut in halves, gilded, neatly lined with silk, and tied 
together with silk cords. Acorns gilded and glued 
together can also be fashioned into articles of useful- 
ness or adornment. 

For the evening's entertainment cut peanuts in 
two, remove the kernel, and write upon tissue paper 
various directions for the players. Place the paper 
inside the halves of the shells, and tie them together. 
Get as many as will to accept these, promising to en- 
deavor, at least, to accomplish the orders contained 
therein. One, on opening his., will find himself 
required to recite a comic poem ; another, to sing a 
duet with a third ; another, to impersonate Hamlet ; 
another, to repeat the alphabet backwards, and so 
on. 

AN INTERNATIONAL TEA. 

Drape the room with flags and colors of the dif- 
ferent nations, hanging upon the walls whatever will 
serve to remind one of foreign lands. After the 
guests have arrived, girls appropriately dressed to rep- 
resent America, Italy, Scotland, France, England, 
Germany, and other lands, step one by one in front 
of the audience and sing the national songs of their 
countries, — the " Star Spangled Banner," ''The 
Watch on the Rhine," the Marseillaise, " Scots wha 
ha'e wi 1 Wallace bled," "God save the Queen," 
" Beautiful Venice, the bride of the sea," and so on. 

Each will carry the flag of the country she repre- 
sents. On the conclusion of the songs there may be 
a march of the nations, in which various evolutions 
may be prettily carried out. 



106 SOCIAL — TO SAVE. 

America will wear the red, white, and blue. Ger- 
many will have braids of yellow hair, a short blue 
skirt and black bodice, and a red waist. France 
may have a lavender skirt, a black velvet bodice and 
white waist, and a dainty white cap. The Scotch 
lassie will wear a short skirt and waist of plaid, with 
a plaid sash about the shoulder, hanging down at 
the side. Her cap will be of the same material. 
England may wear white, and be draped in the na- 
tional banner. Italy may wear a green skirt, red 
bodice and white waist, with red and yellow hand- 
kerchief about her head, while large earrings adorn 
her ears. 

At the conclusion of this pretty entertainment the 
audience may be invited to the supper room, where, 
for a proper fee, they will be given their choice of 
tables presided over by young ladies of the different 
nationalities. America's table will groan under such 
Yankee food as baked beans, brown bread, dough- 
nuts, codfish cakes, succotash, and — of course — 
pie. Scotland's porridge and oat cakes will give 
wholesome invitation, together with cheese, scones, 
and haggis. Italy will preside over vermicelli soup, 
macaroni, spaghetti, cheese, grapes, and figs. Ger- 
many will offer sauerkraut, sausage, and pretzels. 
The dainty French table will present delicate rolls, 
delicious coffee, omelet, and a salad. On England's 
table will be a huge roast of beef and a plum pud- 
ding. 

I have condensed in the foregoing an account by 
Adelaide Rouse. 



SOCIALS AND GAMES. 107 

QUAKER. 

This old-fashioned game is so very old that it will 
be new to most circles. The Juniors will especially 
be pleased with it. The players seat themselves in 
a circle, and the leader, shaking his right hand vig- 
orously up and down, turns to his neighbor with the 
inquiry, ''Neighbor, neighbor, how art thee?" His 
politeness is rewarded with the reply, " I am well, as 
thou dost see." The leader goes on to ask, " How's 
the neighbor next to thee ? " and the second player 
responds, " I don't know, but I'll go see." 

As the second player proceeds with the formula, 
turning to the third player, he commences himself to 
shake his right hand vigorously up and down, and so 
it continues until the entire circle is set to this exer- 
cise. While the right hands are still wagging, the 
leader begins again with the same set of questions, 
at the same time shaking his left hand also. Thus 
it proceeds until first right and then left foot are set 
in motion, and finally the heads of all are wagging 
backward and forward, unless, indeed, long before 
this point is reached, laughter and fatigue have 
brought the game to an end. 

Still another form of this game is entitled, " Home 
from India. 11 The leader says, " My father is home 
from India. 11 His neighbor asks, "What did he 
bring you? 11 The answer is, "A fan, 11 the leader 
proceeding to fan himself with one hand. This ges- 
ture passes around the circle until it reaches the 
leader again, who reiterates his former remark, " My 
father is home from India," and when questioned, 



108 SOCIAL TO SAVE. 

4 * What did he bring you?" answers, "Two fans," 
both hands vigorously waving. Before the end of 
the game a boot and a shoe are successively added, 
and finally a hat, by which time both feet and the 
head as well as the hands are &et in vigorous motion. 

DOUBLETS. 

This game was invented by that witty English- 
man, Lewis Carroll, one of whose problems was this : 
Change "head" to "tail" in five moves. With 
each move one letter of the original word may be 
dropped, and another letter substituted in the same 
place to make a new word, the successive moves cul- 
minating in the word " tail." For example : — 

head, 

heal, 

teal, 

tell, 

tall, 

tail. 
You may divide the company into sets, and pro- 
pose some such doublet as that for their solution, 
the side first solving it having the privilege of draw- 
ing one player from the opposite side, the process 
continuing until one side or the other loses heart or 
all of its players. A similar game may be based on 
any sort of word puzzle. 

A WEEK IN A DAY. 

This is a dainty plan for an evening's entertain- 
ment, and will afford at the same time pleasure and 
some money return, with slight outlay. 



SOCIALS AND GAMES. 109 

Partition the room in which the social is to be held 
into compartments sacred to the various days of the 
week. Sell in the division devoted to Monday arti- 
cles pertaining to washday, such as aprons, clothes- 
pin bags, baby washtubs, and the like. Your grocer 
may have some new kind of soap that he would like 
to introduce, and a practical young woman, prettily 
dressed, may give a working illustration of its virtues. 

Tuesday's booth will contain the articles suitable 
for ironing day ; Wednesday's, everything for mend- 
ing day. Thursday is reception day, and that apart- 
ment will be nicely arranged as a parlor, in which 
tea, cake, and other edibles will be served. Friday 
is sweeping day, and in that division will be stored 
for sale all sorts of brushes and brooms, dust-bags, 
dust-caps, and so on. Saturday is baking day, and 
its division may contain a little bakery in operation, 
the products of which, as well as of many a home 
bakery, will be offered to customers. 

For Sunday, organize an old-fashioned choir, 
dressed in garb of the olden time, and at a certain 
point in the evening let them march in from an ante- 
room and sing the old-time airs for a suitable con- 
clusion to the evening. 

A JAPANESE SOCIAL. 

Hang the walls of the room with Japanese flags, 
wall-rolls, and pictures and curios of all kinds. A 
diligent search among the families of almost any 
town will be rewarded by the discovery of a large 
number of very entertaining curios. One of the first 



HO SOCIAL TO SAVE. 

exercises after the entrance of the guests may be th* 
conveying of a party of Cook's tourists around the 
room, stopping at each object of interest, which is 
explained by some competent guide. 

Japanese screens will partition off the corners of 
the room, and the guests who do not choose to join 
the Cook's tourists may, a couple at a time, enter 
these miniature dwellings, and be served with tea in 
Japanese fashion by the master and mistress of the' 
house, who are clothed in the attire of the country. 

Between the various numbers of the evening's pro-* 
gramme all present are required to seat themselves, 
Japanese fashion, upon the floor, their heels serving 
as sufficient chairs. This attitude will effectually 
keep them awake, while one who has posted himself 
upon the subject gives, with the aid of a map, a 
sketch of Japanese missions, especially indicating 
the places where the missionaries of the denomina- 
tion to which the society belongs are doing their 
work. At another point of the evening some one 
may give an outline of the recent Japan-China war. 

In a social of this kind that I lately attended, the 
three-hour Japanese ceremonial tea was condensed 
into half an hour for our edification, two daintily 
attired girls taking the parts of mistress and servant, 
while two lads in Japanese robes patiently waited for 
the three swallows of tea vouchsafed them after most 
elaborate preparations. 

Early in the evening a blackboard was exhibited 
upon which were written the names of the important 
Japanese cities, and underneath each the names of 



SOCIALS AND GAMES. Ill 

the principal missionaries of the denomination at 
work in each. It was announced that a certain time 
would be given for the study of this list, and groups 
were gathered around it while others were making 
the Cook's tour, or visiting the little Japanese houses 
in the corners. Toward the end of the evening the 
blackboard was turned with its face toward the wall, 
all were provided with pencils and paper, and re- 
quired to duplicate the list of towns and missionaries 
as well as they could. 

A committee received these lists, and while they 
were at work the company were formed in two long 
lines facing each other, to play a regular Japanese 
game. The only implements required are the hands. 
Advancing from their rows, the heads of the columns 
shake their hands vigorously from side to side three 
times in concert, repeating three Japanese words for 
which plain American, " One, two, three !" will an- 
swer. * With the " three," each extends his hand 
toward the other. The hand is extended in one of 
three ways : either with the fist closed, like a stone ; 
or with the palm flat, like a piece of paper ; or with 
the first and second fingers extended, like a pair ot 
scissors. If the opponents have chosen the same 
form, the trial must be made again ; but if A has 
chosen the stone and B the paper, the latter is vic- 
torious, because the paper can wrap up the stone. 
If A has chosen the scissors and B the paper, the 
former is victorious, because the scissors can cut the 
paper. If A has chosen the scissors and B the stone, 
the latter is victorious, because the stone can spoil 



112 SOCIAL — TO SAVE. 

\ 

the scissors. The player who is victorious is per- 
mitted to drop out of the lines, while the one who is 
conquered must remain. So it goes on down the 
rows, opposite players contesting with one another 
until all have tried it. Then again the heads of the 
row go through the form, and so on until one row 
is entirely vanquished. After this game is thor- 
oughly understood, those facing each other all down 
the lines may go through the operation simultane- 
ously, thus making the game very rapid. 

But by this time the committee had completed its 
examination, and was ready to report. To the au- 
thors of the best and the worst papers prizes were 
presented in Japanese fashion. The judge and the 
contestant having seated themselves upon the floor, 
to which their foreheads were touched with many 
profound genuflections, the judge, imitating the Jap- 
anese phrasing, said, "Most illustrious and highly 
exalted victor, your abased and worthless servant 
lifts up to you this honorable prize, in token of aston- 
ishment and admiration at your profound and most im- 
pressive learning. Will your honorable highness deign 
to receive this insignificant token of our profound 
esteem ? " And then followed more genuflections. 

When the time came to go home, the entertain- 
ers seated themselves, Japanese fashion, at one end 
of the room, and all the guests on retiring were 
obliged to seat themselves opposite, bowing to the 
floor three times to express their satisfaction at the 
evening's entertainment, and heartily inviting their 
hosts to come and see them at their homes. 



SOCIALS AND GAMES. I.I3 

GOING TO JERUSALEM. 

I hardly suppose it possible that any of my 
readers are ignorant of this old stand-by, but some 
may have forgotten about it, and so have failed to 
utilize it. 

Arrange a row of chairs alternately facing to the 
left and the right. Seat the company in them, and 
let some skilful player preside at the piano. As she 
begins to play, the company must rise and begin to 
march around the chairs without halting, keeping 
step briskly to the music. In the meantime one 
chair has been removed by a member of the com- 
mittee, so that, when the music suddenly stops and 
each scrambles for a seat, one is sure to be left out. 
Thus the game proceeds until one player is left in 
solitary glory. 

an owl social. 

A social of this nature consists of a literary pro- 
gramme largely descriptive of the owl. There is to 
be a paper describing its habits ; recitations con- 
nected with the owl like " Jimmy Butler and the 
Owl," or Sidney Lanier^ " Owl Against Robin," and 
pieces of music such as the college song, '"The 
Owl and the Pussy Cat. 1 ' 

At the close of the literary programme, all mem- 
bers of the company receive pencils and paper. The 
young men present are condemned to write poems 
upon owls, and the young women to draw pictures 
of the same bird. There is to be a committee of 
men to judge the artistic efforts of the young women, 



114 SOCIAL— - TO SAVE. 

and a committee of women to judge the poetic effu- 
sions of the young men. The prizes are to be a 
paper owl, and a chamois watch-pocket embroid- 
ered with owls. The refreshments consist of coffee 
and " baked owl," — that is, cookies cut in the shape 
of an owl. 

MRS. BROWN'S TEA. 

This is an old catch, but may be new to your 
company. Seat them in a circle, and let the leader 
announce that Mrs. Brown does not like tea. The 
player next to him must ask what she does like, and 
the third player must promptly name some article of 
diet. If this food contains the letter /, the leader 
will cause him ignominiously to leave the circle. 
Again he will assert that Mrs. Brown does not like 
tea. Again the question will be raised what she 
does like, and the next player must name some 
other article of diet. If it is " bread," that is 
deemed satisfactory ; if " toast," he also is dropped ; 
and so it goes on until all have discovered the 
secret. 

MEAL-BAG RACE. 

Obtain a number of stout sacks that will reach 
to the shoulders of the victims. Call for volunteer 
contestants and place them in these sacks, tying the 
necks thereof with stout cord about the necks of the 
players. At the word, " Go," they set off, hopping 
and tumbling over one another, toward a goal on 
the other side of the room. 

A three-legged race is almost equally comical. Ar- 
range your contestants in pairs, tying the right leg 



SOCIALS AND GAMES. I15 

of one to the left leg of the other. Success in this 
race requires an excellent balance both of body and 
of temper. 

SPOONS. 

A ten or fifteen minutes' interval in the evening's 
amusement may be filled with this little bit of fun. 
Blindfold one member of the company, and place 
him in a chair in the middle of the room. Let one 
after another of the Endeavorers go up to him, and 
feed him three teaspoonfuls of water, he endeavor- 
ing to guess who is feeding him. When he suc- 
ceeds, the person he has guessed must take his 
place. 

Another comical performance of a similar nature 
is the blindfolding of two players, who are seated 
on the floor opposite each other. One is given a 
spoon and a peeled banana, and required to cut off 
bits of the banana and feed the other person with 
them by means of the spoon, — a feat by no means 
easy of accomplishment. A saucer full of cracker 
crumbs may be used instead of the banana. Take 
pains to cover the carpet with newspapers ! 

WHO ARE YOU? 

One player leaves the room, and in his absence is 
assigned the character of some famous person. On 
his return he is hailed with questions addressed to 
him as if he were that person, and from these ques- 
tions he must guess who he is. In the reverse of 
this game, entitled, "Who Am I?" the player who 
withdraws selects his own character, returns, and 
acts it out until some one has guessed it. 



Il6 SOCIAL — TO SAVE. 

A GUESSING TOURNAMENT. 
The various guessing games mentioned in " Social 
Evenings " and in this volume may be combined to 
form an elaborate contest. Arrange a series of tables 
about which the players are to be grouped. At each 
table one of the guessing contests is to be conducted. 
At table No. i may be played the penny game 
described in " Social Evenings" under the head of 
" Penny Socials." On table No. 2 may be ten bags, 
each containing objects difficult to distinguish by the 
touch. The hands must be inserted in these bags, 
and their contents discerned without the aid of the 
eye. 

Table No. 3 may contain ten Mother Goose pic- 
tures. The contestants must ransack the memories 
of childhood and write for each the appropriate 
rhyme. Table No. 4 will have a set of baby photo- 
graphs of ten of the best-known persons present, 
whose identity must be discovered. 

Table No. 5 will contain, written on bits of card- 
board, parodies on the names of various well-known 
young people. Mr. Barker, for example, will appear 
as "A good watcher, but poor neighbor"; Miss 
Walker will be " A good pedestrian," and the like. 
Table No. 6 will have upon it ten pictures of famous 
people to be recognized. 

Table No. 7 will contain drawings representing 
in some enigmatic way the titles of famous books. 
Table No. 8 will contain a set of portions of adver- 
tisements, arranged according to the instructions 
given elsewhere in this book. Table No. 9 will test 



SOCIALS AND GAMES. 117 

the sense of taste, and table No. 10 the sense of 
smell. 

The players will make the circuit of these tables in 
order, passing from one to another at the tap of a 
bell. They will be furnished with cards on which 
they will record their guesses. When all have been 
tested in these various ways, correct lists will be 
read, and each will keep account of the number of 
correct guesses he has made, will sum them up, and 
announce them when his name is called. The social 
committee may honor in some appropriate way the 
young man and the young woman whose papers are 
most accurate. 

BIBLE PAIRS. 

In " Social Evenings " I have described an inter- 
esting and instructive game that I named, " Who 
Am I ? " A pleasant variation, especially useful when 
it is desired to separate the party into couples for 
refreshments or other reasons, is the following. 

The social committee will write upon pieces of 
paper the names of Bible men and women that are 
closely associated together, such as Adam and Eve, 
Sarah and Abraham, Isaac and Rachel, Jacob and 
Rebecca, Samson and Delilah, David and Michal, 
Mary and Joseph, Zacharias and Elizabeth, Martha 
and Lazarus, Ahab and Jezebel. As the members 
enter, pin these names upon their backs, giving the 
young women the female names and the young men 
the masculine. 

By conversation each must discover who he is, and 
then transfer the paper from his back to the front of 



115 SOCIAL TO SAVE. 

his coat. For the final step of the game he must 
hunt around and discover the name that is mated 
with his own. The couples thus formed must present 
themselves for verification to the chairman of the 
social committee. 

INITIALS. 

It is easy to obtain sets of cards on which are 
printed letters of the alphabet. Place these in the 
hands of some quick-witted person with a versatile 
brain. Seated in front of the company he will call 
for the name of some author, artist, soldier, plant, 
city, gem, — anything, in fact, he pleases, — begin- 
ning with — and here he will turn up the letter, and 
announce it. The first one who fulfils the require- 
ment will receive the letter. 

If, for example, quite ignorant of what letter he 
might turn up, he should say, " Name a capital of 

one of the United States beginning with C," 

the player who cried out immediately, " Columbus," 
would receive the card. The one who holds the most 
cards on the conclusion of the game is victorious. 

HUNT THE RING. 

Provide a long cord, and, seating the players in 
a circle, let each grasp the cord with both hands, 
bringing the hands together „and separating them 
with a rhythmic motion, so that they touch the 
hands of their neighbors. Somewhere on the cord 
is strung a gold ring, and this is slyly passed from 
hand to hand, the constant motion cleverly hiding the 
transfer. It is the business of a player in the centre 



SOCIALS AND GAMES. 119 

to discover where the ring is, and the person with 
whom the ring is discovered must take his place in 
the centre. If the company is large, two rings 
may be used, started at different points on the 
cord. 

Dispensing with the ring and the string, a coin 
may be used, all the players constantly making the 
motion of taking a coin from the hand of the neigh- 
bor on the right and placing it in the hand of the 
neighbor on the left. 

HYPNOTISM. 

It will be easy to turn the thoughts of the com- 
pany toward hypnotism, and some one may profess 
to be able to hypnotize any one in the audience. 
This player should be one who is able to control his 
countenance and talk fluently. He will induce some 
one to present himself as a subject. 

The subject will be seated in a chair, and after 
various passes and manifest failure, accompanied by 
anxious questions as to whether the subject experi- 
ences any peculiar sensations, the operator will state 
that, as he is a difficult subject, it is necessary for 
him to rise and go to the window, placing his hand 
upon the glass. 

He will then proceed with his passes, and ask, 
with the greatest solicitude, " Do you feel a pain?*' 
Of course the player will reply that he does not ; but 
the operator must insist that he does, and will keep 
this up until he finds it best to ask him, "Why, 
what's that your hand is on? 1 ' 



120 SOCIAL TO SAVE. 

UNITED STATES MAIL. 

Place the chairs at equal distances, and in each a 
player. These players choose the names of cities of 
the United States, and the leader, who must have a 
good memory, will begin the game by calling out, for 
instance, " Buffalo and San Francisco." These two 
cities will now change places, and if the. leader can 
possess himself of either vacant seat in the course of 
the exchange, the person thus ousted must be leader 
in his turn. When the leader calls " General Deliv- 
ery," every one must move to some new seat, and 
the person that is left without a seat is the new 
leader. 

The old game of stage-coach is played in much the 
same way, except that different parts of the stage- 
coach and its various passengers, the horses, and so 
on, are selected by the players, and the leader must 
improvise a story introducing as many of these 
names as possible. As the name of each player is 
introduced, he must rise and whirl around, resuming 
his seat. When the leader says " Stage-coach," the 
whole company must go through this performance, 
and when the climax of a breakdown is reached, all 
change places, and in the mtUe the story-teller finds 
a chair, thus forcing a new story-teller to the front. 

AN ELECTRIC SOCIAL. 

Every person of intelligence is interested in the 
growing marvels of electricity, and the subtle fluid 
has so permeated modern life that in every town is 
to be found at least one electrician, with some sort 



SOCIALS AND GAMES. 121 

of electrical apparatus, — telegraph, telephone, elec- 
tric light, or electric car. The school teachers also 
can help you out with apparatus and explanations. 

Collect everything bearing upon electricity you can 
find. Especially provide yourselves with strong bat- 
teries, and place these in full view of the audience. 
If you can get different kinds of batteries and some 
one to explain their difference, so much the better. 
A machine for the development of frictional electri- 
city, some Leyden jars, Crookes tubes, and the like, 
will be of great interest. A telegraph instrument 
with an operator may most easily be procured. Run 
the lines around the room, and use, if you can, the 
regular insulators and poles. 

Select the wag of your society to manipulate the 
instrument, — and it makes no difference, for the 
nonce, whether he understands telegraphy or not. 
He is to pretend to receive messages which are sent 
him by some one outside. These messages he will 
write out upon regular telegraph blanks, deliver them 
to an attendant, who is dressed as a district messen- 
ger boy, and who will hand them to the proper per- 
sons. These are expected to read them aloud at 
once, and, if they are carefully prepared, they will 
add much to the pleasure of the evening. 

This performance may be arranged to enliven the 
more serious portions of the programme, which will 
consist of talks upon different phases of electricity 
and of electrical engineering, and upon the various 
instruments you may have on exhibition. Of course 
one of the most exciting moments of the evening will 



122 SOCIAL TO SAVE. 

be brought about by a shock, administered to all 
who can be persuaded to join hands. 

A PANSY SOCIAL. 

Upon the invitations or announcements may be 
printed or painted pansies, while the card may read 
simply : — 



FOR THOUGHTS. 
In the Christian Endeavor Room of the 

Westminster Church. 
Monday Evening, May /, eight o'clock. 



The first game of the evening may be the catch, 
" Pansy," described in " Social Evenings." This 
will break up all stiffness. 

. Then may come the " Thought " game. A large 
paper pansy will be hung up where all can see it, 
and upon it will be written such questions as these : 
" What can we do to add to the interest of our 
society ? How can we further the work of our 
church ? What is the funniest story you ever 
heard ? " A pencil and card will be handed to each 
one, and all will be asked to write out their thoughts 
upon these questions. The contributions will then 
be exchanged and read. 

Quotations about pansies may be written on cards, 
which will then be cut in two in odd shapes, one 



SOCIALS AND GAMES. 1 23 

half given to a young woman and the other half to 
a young man. Just before refreshments these may 
be matched, in order to obtain partners for that in- 
teresting occupation. 

A SILVER SOCIAL. 

The Iowa Endeavorers that originated this social 
wrote the invitations on thin paper, which was placed 
in peanut shells tied prettily with ribbon. The fol- 
lowing jingle was written upon the paper : — 

Sir, or madam, as you please, 

In a nutshell me you find, 

Lightly crumpled with a squeeze; 

Very good my word to mind, 

Every one by me invited, 

Read with care ; I'll not be slighted. 

Silver Social 's what I read, 

Oskaloosa, November 4th, 

Come and help supply our need, 

In the chapel of the church. 

A piece of silver kindly bring, 

Light then of heart we ; ll play and sing. 

Of course the main point of the evening will be 
the gathering of this silver offering, but a very pleas- 
ant evening's entertainment may have relation to sil- 
ver. In the first place, silver paper may be used in 
the decorations of the room. There may be tables 
on which will be ranked all kinds of silver curios, — 
old-fashioned pieces of silver, souvenir spoons, silver 
ornaments, — everything made of silver that can be 
brought together, new as well as old. A collection 



124 SOCIAL TO SAVE. 

of silver coins of different nationalities would excite 
much interest. 

For the literary part of the programme there may 
be a debate between the advocates of silver and of 
gold, or between the monometallists and bimetallists 
of the society. There may be an open parliament, 
each member being expected to come prepared to 
tell one curious thing connected with silver. Some 
one who is well informed may give a talk about the 
history of coins. Some one who has travelled in 
the silver States may tell about the mining industry, 
and pictures may be exhibited, either engravings or 
magic lantern views. 

THE FARMYARD. 

The leader will give whispered instructions to the 
different players, telling them what farmyard fowl to 
represent by making the appropriate noise as loudly 
as possible when the leader's hand is raised, and by 
ceasing instantly as soon as the leaders hand is low- 
ered. The person to whom is assigned the character 
of donkey, however, is not told anything about the 
silence required when the leader's hand is lowered ; 
and so, when the cackling, crowing, whinnying, 
quacking, bleating, and mooing are instantly hushed, 
the donkey's bray sounds with startling distinctness 
all alone, to the vast amusement of all but the un- 
fortunate victim. 

AN IMPERSONATION SOCIAL. 

Some Presbyterian Endeavorers held what they 
called an " impersonation social," whose nature may 



SOCIALS AND GAMiio. 1 25 

be clearly gathered from the following circular, which 
they sent out beforehand : — 

Choose some character you think you can impersonate. 

Choose some person of history or of fiction, or some 
type of mankind. 

Be like the person chosen in dress or conversation, or 
both. 

Let your choice be some character familiar to the 
public. 

Use your ingenuity to the utmost to preserve your iden- 
tity and yet not to mystify others. 

The above is merely a guide. Vary the instructions to 
suit yourself, but please do not go to extremes. 

Remember, our object is to have a good time, and the 
more ready you are to take part, the better time some one 
else will have. 

Don't be afraid that you will know too much concern- 
ing the person you have chosen to impersonate. Read 
up, and be full of facts about yourself as a historical 
character. 

Two prizes will be awarded : one to the most appropri- 
ately dressed person, and one to the person guessing the 
identity of the most people. 

Come yourself, and bring others. 

Refreshments will be served, and an appropriate enter- 
tainment provided. 

THEATRICAL ADJECTIVES. 

For the ten games that follow I am indebted to an 
exceedingly bright collection of home amusements, 
" Fagots for the Fireside, v by Lucretia P. Hale, of 



126 SOCIAL — TO SAVE. 

which Houghton, Mifflin & Co. are the publishers. 
I have greatly condensed her vivacious accounts, and 
have changed several of the games, in order to 
adapt them more completely to the needs of our 
Christian Endeavor socials. 

To play theatrical adjectives, one person must re- 
tire from the room while the remainder choose an 
adjective. Upon his return he must judge what this 
adjective is by the manner in which the company 
answer his questions. If the adjective, for example, 
is " somnolent," the answers will be exceedingly 
sleepy. If it is "fidgety," there will be no end of 
jerks and uneasiness under his cross-examination. 
If it is "startling," not only will the replies be 
highly imaginative, but they will be given in a 
decidedly explosive style. The person whose answer 
gives the clue to the adjective must retire in his turn. 

PREPOSTEROUS TRAVEL. 

The company is seated in a circle, and the leader 
whispers to his right-hand neighbor the name of the 
country to which he intends travelling. He then 
asks his left-hand neighbor whether he is to go by 
land or sea, inquires of the next person what sort of 
conveyance is to carry him, and of the next towards 
what point of the compass he is to direct that con- 
veyance. 

Then his right-hand neighbor will announce the 
goal of his intended journey and it will be his duty 
to explain satisfactorily how he can reach it in the 
way proposed. For example, if he has secretly de- 



SOCIALS AND GAMES. I27 

clared his intention to go to London, and is told to 
go by land, on a toboggan, setting out south, he may 
be compelled to go by way of the South Pole, and 
to establish some very eccentric bridges, on sloping 
trestle-work. It will be seen that this game affords 
abundant scope for the imagination. 

LITERATI. 

One player having withdrawn, the others decide 
on the name of some prominent person, — for exam- 
ple, " Lincoln." L is assigned to one player, i to 
the next, ;/ to the third, and so 0*11. When the 
player is called from the other room, he questions 
the one who has the first letter, and who must an- 
swer his questions having in mind the name of some 
person whose name begins with /, such as Lowell. 
The questioner must try to find out what person he 
is thinking of. If this is accomplished, he knows 
that the company has thought of some name begin- 
ning with /. 

Passing to the next player, who may choose for 
his character Isaac, he will endeavor to discover in 
the same way the second letter of the name thought 
of by the company. N may be Newton ; c, Caesar ; 
<?, Obadiah ; /, Lucy Larcom ; and n, Nebuchadnez- 
zar. If this series of questions fails to disclose the 
name desired, the leader may go on around the cir- 
cle, new characters being taken whose names begin 
with the letters in the word Lincoln. The person 
who has given the final hint leading to the discovery 
of this name must withdraw next. 



128 SOCIAL TO SAVE. 

QUOTATIONS. 

Seat the company in opposite rows, the leader of 
one of which must begin the game by quoting a line 
or more from some poet. Before he is through with 
the quotation some one on the opposite side must 
name the author from whom he is quoting. In de- 
fault of this the leader has the privilege of choosing 
some player from the opposite side. It is now the 
turn of the head of the opposing column to give a 
quotation, and so the game proceeds down the rows, 
the quotations alternating from side to side. 

The same game may be played in reverse order by 
permitting each player to select a poet from whom he 
will be ready to give quotations when called upon. 
The company is seated in a circle, and, standing in 
the centre with a plate, the leader twirls it, at the 
same time calling the name of one of the poets 
chosen, whose representative must give a quotation 
before the plate falls. Failing to do this, he must 
take his place in the centre, and spin the plate unti) 
he also catches some one napping. 

ALPHABET STORIES. 

Set the entire company to composing stories of 
twenty-six words, the first letters of the words being, 
in order, the letters of the alphabet. One of Miss 
Hale's samples is the following: " A Barbarous 
Caterpillar Destroyed Every Fuchsia Growing Here 
In June, Killing Likewise Many New Orchids Planted 
Quite Recently. Such Totally Unexpected Villainous 
Work Xasperated Young Zebedee." 



SOCIALS AND GAMES. 1 29 

The alphabet also could be used backward, after 
this fashion: "Zealous Young Xantippe, Wedded 
Very Unhappily To Socrates, Reiterated Querulous 
Personalities On Noted Men Like Kleon, Jealously 
Insulting Husband, Greece, Friends, Every Dear 
Creature, By Abusive, Angry Aspersions. 1 ' 

I LOVE MY LOVE. 

The old form of this game is played in this way. 
The leader begins with, " I love my love with an A 
because he (or she, according to the sex of the 
speaker) is Amiable. I hate him, because he is 
Audacious. He took me to the sign of the Antelope, 
and gave me Apples to eat and Ale to drink. His 
name is Anthony, and he came from Albany." The 
next player must go through the same formula using 
the letter B, and so on through the alphabet. 

Miss Hale's variation is ingenious. It requires the 
use of the initials, either two, or all three, of any 
person present. Here is her example : " I love my 
love with an A. S. F. because she has A Sweet Face. 
I hate her (if possible) because she is an Anti-Suf- 
frage Female. I took her to the sign of the Anglo- 
Saxon Farmer, and gave her A Spring Fowl to eat 
and All-Spice Flip to drink. She reads the Anti-So- 
cialist Federalist, and smells of A Sweet Flower. 
Her name is Annie Sturtevant Fortescue, and she 
comes from Augustine (St.), Florida." 

THE TRAVELLING BEAN BAGS. 

Permit two leaders to choose up, each calling to 
his side one-half the company. All the members of 



130 SOCIAL — TO s*VE. 

one side will pin upon themselves white badges, and 
the other side will be designated with red. Lines 
are now to be formed, one headed by the white cap- 
tain, the other by the red, while the various colors 
will alternate down the line. 

Each captain will be provided with a cloth bag of 
beans containing about half a pint. At a given sig- 
nal the white captain throws his bag to the white 
man opposite, and he diagonally to the second white 
man in the opposite row, and so on, the bean bag 
zigzagging down the rows to the end, and then back 
to the leader. The side that succeeds first in accom- 
plishing this task is victorious. 

The game may be made more difficult by using 
ten bags on a side, and sending them down the line 
one after the other. To avoid confusion, the bags 
of one side should be of white cloth and those of the 
other side of red. 

APPRENTICE MY SON. 

The leader begins by saying, " I apprenticed my 
son to a stationer, and the first thing he sold was 
a C. P. C." The company must guess what article 
the young apprentice disposed of, and the fortunate 
guesser of a celluloid paper-cutter has the privilege 
in his turn of apprenticing a son. 

SONNETS. 

Any sonnet from any poet is to be selected, the 
name of the poet and title of the sonnet being kept 
a secret. One at a time the final word of each line is 
to be disclosed to the company. As each conclud- 



SOCIALS AND GAMES. 131 

ing word is announced, the players are required to 
write a line of ten syllables ending with that word, 
and all must accomplish the task before the word 
that terminates the next line is disclosed. 

The game will be made more difficult, though the 
result will not be so varied, if a topic for all sonnets 
is assigned beforehand. Probably it will be best 
to permit each player to choose his own theme. 

CAT'S CONCERT. 

For a five-minute relief from more serious games, 
gather the entire company in a group, and permit 
them, on a signal from the leader, to sing at the top 
of their voices, each one a different tune. 

ALLITERATION. 

Mr. V. G. Mays is the author of the following 
pleasant adaptation of the common game of allitera- 
tion. He suggests that upon cards should be placed 
the letters of the alphabet. If more than twenty-six 
are present at the social, these letters may be re- 
peated. The more difficult letters, like x 9 jr, z,j\ and 
q, may be omitted. The players choose their cards 
by lot, and on a given signal are set to writing sen- 
tences, each word of which must begin with the let- 
ter upon the card. If the committee choose to grant 
this privilege, the players may be allowed to incor- 
porate in the sentences one or two connectives be- 
ginning with some other letter. On the expiration 
of the allotted time, the sentences are read, and the 
person who has written the longest is adjudged 
victor. 



I32 SOCIAL TO SAVE. 

A variation of this entertainment requires the 
social committee to form beforehand a number of 
alliterative sentences, each based upon a different 
letter. The sentences are cut apart, and the words 
composing them given to the different members of 
the company, who are required to get together in 
groups, each group bearing words beginning with the 
same letter. These words are to be compared, and 
put together by the group in the proper order, the 
group first succeeding being accounted victors. 

The first game may be varied by dividing the 
company into groups, the members of each group 
competing with one another as to who shall form 
the longest sentence. Or the entire company may 
be divided into two sets, and the same letter assigned 
to each set. The side that produces within a given 
time the longest sentence beginning with that letter 
has the privilege of choosing one from the opposite 
side. A new letter is assigned, and so the game 
proceeds until one side is reduced to naught. 

Another pleasant variation is the writing of alliter- 
ative stories consisting of as many sentences as the 
writer pleases. In this case it is best to assign a 
topic for all the stories, such as Columbus setting 
the egg on end, Newton and the apple, Franklin and 
the kite, or the fable of the fox and the grapes. 

AN UMBRELLA SOCIAL. 

Present all that come with tiny Japanese parasols 
upon which are written questions relating to missions, 
preferably to Japanese missions, especially if your 



SOCIALS AND GAMES. 133 

denomination has missions in that country. Half 
of the parasols contain the questions, and half the 
answers tb the same questions. Have a bright pro- 
gramme consisting of papers and talks and possibly 
songs relating to the country you have chosen. On 
the conclusion of this, let each that has a question 
read it, and those that hold the answers, or think 
they hold them, read them. Much missionary infor- 
mation can be gained in this way. 

A PHOTOGRAPH SOCIAL. 

Let every one that comes to the social be re- 
quested to bring a photograph of himself, — one 
taken so long ago, or at a time when he was so dif- 
ferent in appearance, that the photograph will not be 
likely to be recognized. As he enters he will give 
the photograph to an attendant, passing on to de- 
posit hat or wraps. Returning to the room where 
the social is held, on entering each selects at random 
another photograph, whose owner he must discover 
in the course of the evening, seeking also to identify 
as many other photographs as possible. For addi- 
tional amusement on this evening the social com- 
mittee might make use of the photograph social 
described in " Social Evenings.'" 

A FACULTY SOCIAL. 

This amusement under various names is quite well 
known, and if your society has not tried it, you will 
find it an excellent plan for passing a pleasant hour. 
Each of the five senses is to be tested in turn. To 



134 SOCIAL — TO SAVE. 

test the sight, cover a table with a miscellaneous col- 
lection of objects as incongruous as possible. The 
Endeavorers are filed slowly past this table, being 
bidden to look at everything, if possible, and to carry 
them all away in memory. Each is furnished with 
paper and pencil, and makes out a list of all objects 
on the table, so far as his memory will serve him. 

Another form of this 'test we may give the eye is 
the following. Fill ten little dishes with various sub- 
stances, such as sugar, powdered cinnamon, ground 
sulphur, white pepper, ground coffee, sand, borax, 
and the like, requiring the Endeavorers to tell by 
looking at these substances what they are. 

To test the hearing, ten different musical instru- 
ments are sounded in a neighboring room. If 
thought best they may be sounded together, and 
from the tangle the Endeavorers be required to dis- 
tinguish each of the ten instruments. The word 
44 instrument" is used in a loose sense, since it may 
include tin pans, cow-bells, sleigh-bells, and the 
like ! 

Next, ten little bottles filled with substances of 
various odors are passed about the room, the stronger 
odors, like camphor and ammonia, being slyly passed 
first. Each is required to make a list of these as 
they reach him. 

The tongue is to be tested by the passing of vari- 
ous packages, each of which is to be tasted. The 
substance should be disguised to the eye ; for exam- 
ple, popcorn may be pounded so as to appear a pow- 
der. Water may be carefully dropped from a colored 



SOCIALS AND GAMES. 135 

bottle, and will deceive not a few. Substances com- 
monly found in powders may be stuck together in 
cakes. 

To test the touch, darken the room and pass from 
one to another ten different objects, such as a cold 
buckwheat pancake, a pig's tail, a kid glove stuffed 
with wet sand, a piece of resin, a bit of tortoise-shell, 
and the like. After the light is restored, the players 
are required to make a list of these objects, so far 
as they have guessed them. Another form of the 
latter test is to place ten different objects under a 
cloth, and require the players to feel around until 
they have discovered ten objects. This is not so 
funny, however, as the first plan. 

After these five tests a correct list is read. Each 
player checks his neighbor's list, and then it is an- 
nounced how many each has guessed correctly. 
Some appropriate reward should be given to the 
best guesser for each test. 

LIVING AUTHORS. 

Four players are to be given the names of poets, 
four of novelists, four of essayists, four of historians, 
four of humorists, and so on. Each player is told in 
secret whom he is to represent. The complete list 
is placed before the society, plainly printed upon a 
blackboard. 

These preliminaries being arranged, from four to 
seven or eight unnamed persons play the game. 
They sit in a circle, and draw their cards by calling 
in turn upon the members to stand behind their 



T36 SOCIAL — TO SAVE. 

chair. As each member reaches the chair he whis- 
pers to the player his author's name. 

The game proceeds as in the well-known game of 
authors, each player calling in turn for an author 
needed to complete some book of which he has a 
part. After a book is formed, it is made to sit down 
behind the chair of the fortunate player, and so the 
game proceeds until all are seated. 

EGG FOOT-BALL. 

To play this amusing game, carefully blow out the 
contents of a hen's egg. Group your players around 
a piano or a large table, place the egg in the centre, 
and station at either end two uprights for the goal 
posts. Four salt cellars will answer the purpose. 

Divide the company into two " teams," that may 
be called respectively the Yales and the Harvards, 
and let the members of these bands alternate. On a 
given signal all are to blow upon the egg with all 
their might, each band striving to blow the egg 
through the goal posts of their opponents. The 
team first succeeding in this is victorious. 

For a social several groups might be set to play- 
ing this game simultaneously, or you might ask all 
present to form themselves into teams representing 
their favorite colleges, and carry on a series of games 
on a single field, for the championship. 

A BIBLE TEST. 

Here is a well-known alphabet of Scripture proper 
names which may be utilized at a social by ranking 



SOCIALS AND GAMES. 137 

die members on two sides, and reading these lines 
one at a time, in the same way that a spelling bee is 
carried on : — 

A was a monarch who reigned in the East ; 

(Esth. 1:1.) 
B was a Chaldee who made a great feast ; 

(Dan. 5 : 1-4.) 
C was veracious, when others told lies ; 

(Num. 13 : 30-33.) 
D was a woman heroic and wise ; 

(Judg. 4 : 4-14.) 
E was a refuge, where David spared Saul ; 

(1 Sam. 24: 1-7.) 
P was a Roman, accuser of Paul ; 

(Acts 26 : 24.) 
G was a garden, a favorite resort ; 

(John 18 : 1-2 ; Matt. 26 : 36.) 
H was a city where David held court ; 

(2 Sam. 2 : 11.) 
I was a mocker, a very bad boy ; 

(Gen. 16: 16.) 
J was a city, preferred as a joy ; 

(Ps. 137: 6.) 
K was a father, whose son was quite tall ; 

(1 Sam. 9 : 1, 2.) 
L was a proud one, who had a great fall; 

(Isa. 14: 12.) 
M was a nephew, whose uncle was good ; 

(Col. 4 : 10 ; Acts n : 24.) 
N was a city, long hid where it stood ; 

(Zeph. 2 : 13.) 
O was a servant, acknowledged a brother ; 

(Philemon 1-16.) 
P was a Christian, greeting another ;- 

(2 Tim. 1 : 1,2.) 
R was a damsel, who knew a man's voice ; 

(Acts 12 : 13, 14.) 



138 SOCIAL — TO SAVE. 

S was a sovereign who made a bad choice ; 

(1 Kings 11 : 4-1 1.) 
T was a seaport, where preaching was long ; 

(Acts 20 : 6, 7.) 
U was a teamster, struck dead for his wrong ; 

(2 Sam. 6: 7.) 
V was a cast-off, and never restored ; 

(Esth. 1: 19.) 
Z was a ruin, with sorrow deplored ; 

(Ps. i 37 : l) 

For several of the descriptions more than one per- 
son will answer, and if a good reply is made it should 
be accepted, whether it is the one expected or not. 

A BIBLE SOCIAL.. 

Any biblical theme may be made the basis of a 
social. Take, for instance, faith. Papers may be 
read on Bible heroes of faith. There may be a talk 
on faith by the pastor, appropriate music may be 
sung, and poems recited. 

The parables of Christ would furnish material for 
an evening's thought and profitable entertainment. 
There are many poems based upon these parables 
that could be repeated, and many helpful papers 
could be written upon themes suggested by the 
immortal stories. Pictures illustrating them could 
be grouped on the walls. You could have a question 
match based on the parables. Each Endeavorer 
might be required to come representing in some way 
one of the parables, — having a piece of money strung 
around his neck, carrying a handful of seed, eating 
husks, or the like. 



SOCIALS AND GAMES. 139 

This is a mere hint of a vast range of delightful 
socials that any wide-awake committee might con- 
trive. 

NOTED MEN. 

Give to each paper and pencils, and require him 
to write a list, as long as he can make it in two min- 
utes, of noted men whose last names begin with A. 
On the expiration of the time, each reads his list, 
and scores one for every player in the room that has 
not a name that he himself has. If, for example, his 
list contains Alfred Austin, and six persons in the 
room have failed to record the poet laureate, that 
name will count him six. The count being com- 
pleted, the company goes to B, and so on. 

ANIMAL CONSEQUENCES. 

Each player draws upon a piece of paper the head 
of some animal, and folds it so as to leave in sight 
only the lower portion of the neck. Upon this his 
neighbor, to whom the paper is passed, fits the body 
of any animal he may think of, and folds it so as to 
leave in sight only a line or two indicating where the 
legs are to be joined on. Once more the papers are 
passed, and the pictures are concluded by the addi- 
tion of legs. The results will, of course, be fantastic 
enough, as an elephant's head, gifted with a swan's 
body and a dog's feet. 

A MODELLING PARTY. 

Give to each guest a square of cardboard, to which 
is fastened, by a string through one end, a sharpened 
pencil, and to the other end a generous piece of 



140 SOCIAL TO SAVE. 

chewing gum. While the company are in the midst 
of conjectures as to what this combination means, 
request each to write in the middle of his piece of 
cardboard the name of some animal. This being 
accomplished, inform the company that each is to 
mould the gum in the shape of the animal he has 
named. Modelling clay may be used in place of the 
gum, but is not quite so easily managed. 

This operation will produce much merriment. 
Many of the animals will be very lifelike, and many 
others quite the reverse. When all have completed 
their artistic tasks, they are to place the products of 
their skill upon a table in the centre of the room. 

Below each animal must be the cardboard belong- 
ing to it, with the name of the animal downward. 
Upon the upper surface the social committee will 
write a number, and cards, upon which is a corre- 
sponding list of numbers, will be given each player. 
Opposite each number the players are to write the 
name of the animal they think the sculptor intended 
to represent. The ^social committee will correct 
these lists, or read a correct list and have the mem- 
bers correct their own guesses. The most accurate 
list may be rewarded with a toy animal. 

MAGIC MUSIC 

A player must withdraw, and in his absence the 
company fix upon some part of the room to which he 
must go, and something he must do when he gets 
there. Seating herself at the piano, one player di- 
rects his motions when he enters by playing softly 



SOCIALS AND GAMES. 14I 

when he goes in the wrong direction or does the 
wrong thing, and loudly when he gets " hot." It is 
astonishing how speedily a quick-witted player can 
in this way guess the design of the others. 

NOVELS. 

A writer in The Congregatioualist describes this 
game. The players are furnished with sheets of 
paper, at the top of which each writes the name of 
an imaginary novel. Turning it down so that the 
next player cannot see what has been written, he 
passes the sheet on. All are then required to com- 
plete the titles with subtitles, in a similar manner 
passing the sheet on after the insertion of this im- 
portant feature. The next item is the name of the 
hero, then a heroine is furnished, and then the novel 
is summed up in a sentence or two containing a 
climax, and finally a brief criticism on the whole is 
written, after which the papers are given to one 
player to read aloud, or else are read aloud in turn 
by those who happen to hold them. 

Here is a sample of the result : — 

The Story of a Fat Tramp, 

Or, 

A Doughnut's Revenge. 

Hero: Father. 

Heroine : My kitty. 

What happened ? The Indian shot the white man with 
seven deadly arrows. 

Criticism : The book will be enjoyed by young and old 



142 SOCIAL TO SAVE. 

alike, of both sexes and of all nationalities. It is replete 
with wit and harrowing detail. To be had at any news- 
stand for ten cents. 

A COOKY SOCIAL. 

The keynote of the social will be given as the 
members arrive, by a large pumpkin lantern placed 
over the door. Instead of the customary grinning 
face, the C. E. monogram will gleam out. 

Get one of the boys to make a cooky-cutter shaped 
like the same monogram. With the aid of this, pre- 
pare a large number of C. E. monogram cookies. 

The game that will open the social and give to it 
its name will thus be carried out. Place upon one 
wall of the room, at some distance from the specta- 
tors, a number of paper C. E. monograms and one 
cooky monogram, all made to look as much alike as 
possible. Number these, and call upon the mem- 
bers present to guess which monogram is a cooky. 
On the conclusion of the guesses give the members 
an invitation to come forward, take the monogram 
they have fixed upon, and eat it! 

A PORTRAIT SOCIAL. 

From the portrait catalogues of book publishers 
and the illustrated weeklies, as well as from the 
magazines, may be obtained a large number of por- 
traits of famous men and women. Cut these out 
neatly, and paste them carefully upon uniform squares 
of cardboard. Number these, and perforate them at 
the top for bits of ribbon by which they may be 



SOCIALS AND GAMES. 1 43 

fastened to the coats and dresses of the players. 
Each player is also furnished with a piece of card- 
board bearing a list of numbers, as many as there 
are portraits in the room. 

The players are expected to fill their cards with 
a correct list of the persons represented by the vari- 
ous portraits, each name opposite the proper num- 
ber. If the company is large, this operation will 
require at least an hour. On the close of it the 
cards are handed to a committee, who will examine 
them. In the meantime some pleasant literary or 
musical exercise may be given, closed by the an- 
nouncement of the committee. 

DATES. 

Let the social committee prepare a list of dates on 
which well-known events occurred and read these 
dates slowly, giving the company time to write on 
slips of paper the events they think occurred on 
those dates. This being accomplished, a correct 
list will be read, the members revising their own and 
reporting the number they have right. A pretty box 
of dates would be an appropriate prize for the victor, 
and for the booby prize an old, dogVeared school 
history. 

JACK HORNER AND HIS PIE. 

An amusing and at the same time profitable fea- 
ture of a social may be contrived by means of a large 
imitation pie. Get a pan, the most generous you 
can find, divide it into compartments, and fill these 



144 SOCIAL TO SAVE. 

compartments with various articles that are to be 
sold. The most roomy division may be rilled 
with candy. Pen-wipers, pin-cushions, needle-books, 
thimbles, paper weights, paper cutters, and the like, 
may fill the other compartments. 

Attach to each object a string, which is allowed 
to hang down outside. Above the whole place a 
cover of brown paper, made to imitate pie crust, 
and cut in sections that can be lifted separately. 
Dress some comical little boy to look like the tradi- 
tional Jack Horner, and set him in the corner with 
the pie before him. Charge a small fee for the 
privilege of selecting a string, which Jack Horner is 
to pull, extracting the plum, which the brave boy 
will hand over to the purchaser for his own delecta- 
tion. Of course with each pull Jack will give vent 
to the traditional exclamation. 

UP JENKINS. 

This is an old-fashioned game, suitable for a small 
party, or for a subdivision of a large social. Set the 
players close together around a large table, the halves 
facing one another to be contestants. To one side 
is given a silver half-dollar. They pass it from hand 
to hand very quickly under the table until Number 
One on the opposite side calls out, " Up Jenkins." 

Immediately every hand on the side with the coin 
must be raised, and laid squarely upon the table. 
Care must be taken, of course, by the one who hap- 
pens to hold the coin, not to betray that fact by ring- 
ing it on the table as his hand goes down, or by 
fumbling it in the process. 



SOCIALS AND GAMES. 1 45 

Number One on the opposite side, if his sharp eye 
has discovered the location of the coin, or if he has 
a good guess at it, will proceed to call up the hands 
before him, saying, " Up John's right hand, up 
Jennie's left hand," and so on, aiming to leave on 
the table for the last the hand under which is the 
coin. In that case his own side take their turn at 
the sport. If he fails, the first side goes through the- 
same process again, and Number Two of their oppo- 
nents tries his hand at the discovery. The side that 
scores the fewest failures, beats. 

A POPCORN SOCIAL. 

This is a social for the Juniors, who will be inter- 
ested in helping to prepare the material beforehand. 
Decorate the room with strings of popcorn, and also 
with ears of corn not popped. Popcorn may be sold 
in various forms, — balls, bricks, plain, sugared, and 
so on. The older Endeavorers may be invited to 
make this part of the social a success. The popcorn- 
eating contest mentioned in " Social Evenings" will 
make a brisk addition to this social. 

AN ANIMAL SOCIAL. 

This will please the Juniors. Assign to different 
members of the society recitations upon animals to 
be given, or compositions upon different animals to 
be written and read. For a competition, pass around 
among the Juniors present folded sheets of paper. 
On one half of the sheet is to be drawn an animal, 
and on the other half must be written a description 
of the same animal. 



146 SOCIAL — TO SAVE. 

After all are through, let description and drawing 
be handed in to the superintendent, who will tear 
them apart. Pin the drawings upon the wall, dis- 
tribute the descriptions among the Juniors haphaz- 
ard, and set each to seeking the picture belonging to 
the description. A little prize of some toy animal 
might be given to the author and artist that does the 
best. Little animal crackers might form part of the 
refreshments. 

A UNION CONVERSAZIONE. 

This social is especially useful where you have a 
gathering of several societies. Divide them into 
groups of six or eight each, seated around a table. 
Assign to each group a leader, who will maintain his 
position at the table throughout the evening, direct- 
ing the conversation there. 

Each table is to discuss some live Christian En- 
deavor topic, such as the best way of raising money 
for missions, the most important elements in a good 
prayer meeting, the faults of society singing and how 
to remedy them, the pledge and how to keep it. At 
the end of the first five minutes, half of each group 
must be sent to another table, and so the company is 
to be kept in circulation until each member has met 
all the others. 

At each table is to be seated a reporter, who will 
remain there throughout the evening, taking notes of 
the helpful points brought out in the conversation at 
that table. After all the Endeavorers have made the 
circuit of the tables, these reporters will give their 



SOCIALS AND GAMES. 1 47 

reports. The others should have a chance to add to 
these summings-up, if anything interesting or helpful 
has been omitted. 

A VALENTINE SUPPER. 

One Christian Endeavor society used the follow- 
ing menu at a Valentine supper, the participants or- 
dering from these enigmatic hints. 



MENU.... 



My Stay Through Life. 

I Fly To Thee, 5 cents. Forever Thine, 5 cents. 

Beat That Ball, 5 cents. 

Love Antidote, and True Lover's Knot, 5 cents. 

DESSERT. 

Midsummer's Dream, 10 cents. 

My Mother Loves Thee and My Father Does Not Object, 

5 cents. 

Odd Commodities. 

DRINKS. 

African Beauty, 5 cents. Chinese Heartease, 5 cents. 

Squeeze Me More, 5 cents. 

Elixir of Life. 



With the exception of the " Odd Commodities," 
which was a mixture of fruits, the interpretation of 
the menu in order was the following: " Bread, 



X48 SOCIAL TO SAVE. 

chicken, cold beef, beets and potato balls, pickles, 
crullers, ice cream, apple pie and pumpkin pie, coffee, 
tea, lemonade, water." 

A FAGOT PARTY. 

Give to each Endeavorer that will accept it under 
the conditions, a bundle of sticks tied in a fagot. 
The conditions are that the fagot must be placed in 
an open fire-place, — and the room must contain one, 
if this form of social is to be used, — and while the 
fagot is burning the member that deposited it must 
tell a story, the story to be at least as long as the 
life of the fagot. 

AN INDOOR PICNIC. 

Try the plan of holding an Endeavor picnic dur- 
ing the winter months. Decorate the room in which 
you meet with as much green as possible, and spread 
the viands upon the floor, or, if you choose, on 
tables. Have everything brought in covered bas- 
kets, one basket to a table — or to a tablecloth. 
You may cut up quotations into four or eight parts, 
requiring the holders of these parts to eat together. 

NEEDLES AND THREAD. 

For a few minutes 1 sport during a social, provide 
needles and thread, and announce the contest, re- 
questing the young men to volunteer. Those that 
have sufficient daring are provided each with ten 
needles and a long thread, upon which, at the word, 
" Go," they must proceed to string the needles, mak- 
ing a knot after each needle. The one who first 



SOCIALS AND GAMES. 1 49 

accomplishes the task is adjudged the victor, and is 
to be adorned with # large bow of bright red ribbon. 

A UNION SOCIAL. 

A good plan for a union social was once described 
by a writer in The Advance. As the various persons 
enter they give their names to a set of quick writers, 
who prepare for each a card on which his name is 
written as an anagram, — " Martine," for instance, 
being transformed into " raiment" ; or in which the 
name is described in some punning fashion, Mr. 
Paine, for example, being represented by a face with 
agonized expression, and swollen, bandaged jaws ; 
or by a rebus in which, for instance, Mr. R. A. 
Underwood's name is written 

Wood 
R. A. 

As soon as the majority have arrived, these cards 
are distributed at random, except that care is taken 
to give cards bearing ladies 1 names to the gentlemen. 
Each card-holder is then required to hunt through 
the company and discover the person whose name is 
upon his card. This being accomplished, the two 
must go together in search of the person undiscov- 
ered by one of them. 

Thus three, at least, are made to know one an- 
other, and in the process they must have talked with 
many more. If thought desirable, there may be at 
this point a general exchange of cards, resulting in a 
fresh set of acquaintances. 



150 SOCIAL TO SAVE. 

A RAILROAD SOCIAL. 

The society that devised this social sent out invi- 
tations reading somewhat like this : " The Y. P. S. 
C. E. of the Holland Church will give a railroad 
social on Friday evening. Train will leave the home 
of Miss Green at eight o'clock. Come in travelling 
costume. Round trip, ten cents. Train will stop 
for lunch." 

The walls of the rooms that were to represent the 
cars were decorated with railroad maps and with 
announcements, such as " Don't flirt with the brake- 
man " ; " Bachelors must not make fun of the bride 
and groom' 1 ; " Every one is permitted to ride on 
the platform," and the like. The chairs were ar- 
ranged in rows, with aisles between, in imitation of 
a car. 

At the entrance each traveller paid his ten cents, 
and received a pasteboard ticket bearing the name of 
some station. Only two, a young man and a young 
woman, received tickets to the same station, and 
they were expected to sit together in the cars. One 
Endeavorer represented a colored porter, even to the 
point of demanding a fee for everything he did. 
There was a train boy, with his packages of candy, 
his basket of fruit and sandwiches, his paper novels, 
and his latest magazines. There were brakemen, 
who called the stations, and a conductor to punch 
the tickets. There were a few amusing characters, 
such as the bride and groom, the old farmer taking 
his first trip upon the train, the Western cow-boy, 
the fussy old maid with her bundles and bird- 



SOCIALS AND GAMES. 151 

cage, the crying baby, the fidgety small boy, and 
so on. 

A stop was made for ten minutes at a junction, 
where was a lunch-counter over which sandwiches 
and coffee were served, as well as a dining-room where 
could be obtained in more leisurely fashion ice-cream, 
cake, and fruit. The hilarity of such a social might 
well be tempered with several talks on railroading 
in its various phases, delivered while the train is in 
motion between the stations. All sorts of accesso- 
ries, such as engine bells, whistles, signal-flags, and 
the like, may be introduced. 

A PEANUT RACE. 

This is similar to the well-known potato race, but 
is more difficult. A pile of peanuts is placed at one 
end of the room, and at the other, upon chairs, as 
many dishes as there are contestants. Each is given 
a large knife, upon which, at a given signal, he 
scoops up as many peanuts as he can and carries 
them to his dish at the other end of the room. The 
one who within the allotted time places the largest 
number of peanuts in his dish is accounted the 
victor. 

AUCTION. 

Select your wittiest member for the auctioneer. 
He will choose a number of the Endeavorers and set 
them up at auction as if they were statues, giving the 
statues appropriate names. For example, he will 
dub a very tall young man u Tom Thumb " ; a par- 
ticularly fragile youth " Corbett or Sullivan"; a 



*5 2 SOCIAL TO SAVE. 

pretty young girl " Liliuokalani," and so on. The 
members of the audience will make their bids, offer- 
ing all sorts of queer things, such as a toothpick, an 
old shoe, a comb, a cuff button, a hairpin, or a 
pocket knife. The bid that succeeds in making the 
statue laugh isthe one that is victorious 

A MAGAZINE MEET. 

This pleasant evening's entertainment was origi- 
nated by Miss Olive E. Dana. She suggests that 
each Endeavorer be assigned beforehand some mag- 
azine or paper to represent. This is to guard 
against duplications. All the prominent periodicals 
are easily represented, with a little ingenuity. For 
example, a bundle of examination papers which the 
bearer is assiduously correcting, will stand for The 
Review of Reviews; a tomahawk, with a feather 
in the hair, would sufficiently indicate The North 
American; a pair of strolling musicians would be 
Harpers ; 2l diary of domestic events, The Ladies'* 
Home Journal ; a marine view carried in the hand 
would suggest The Atlantic ; St. Nicholas would re- 
quire a long beard, a fur overcoat, and a pack on the 
back ; The Bazar might be organized in one cor- 
ner ; a foot rule brightly gilded would stand for the 
Endeavorers 1 favorite organ. 

After all have admired these various shrewd con- 
trivances, the company may proceed to the more 
solid portion of the evening, consisting of papers and 
discussions concerning that important feature of 
modern life, the magazine. These could be as va* 



SOCIALS AND GAMES. 1 53 

ried as the ability and interests of the members. 
One might describe the magazine of our grand- 
fathers 1 days and bring some old numbers to show. 
One could tell about the way magazines are illus- 
trated, and the growth of this important feature. 
There might be a debate in which the claims of the 
various favorite magazines are presented. Magazine 
advertisements, famous magazine serials, articles, 
and series of articles, the lessened price of maga- 
zines, the influence of magazines on modern life, — 
these are samples of topics that might be used. 

AN AMATEUR PHOTOGRAPHY SOCIAL. 

If your society and church contains a number of 
enthusiastic amateur photographers, you may suc- 
cessfully make amateur photography the basis of a 
social. 

Appoint these enthusiasts a committee to collect 
from their friends all their best specimens of work. 
They may bring in also any remarkable photographs 
they themselves may happen to have. There will be 
transparencies, blue prints, out-of-focus photographs, 
colored photographs, and, in fine, an assortment as 
varied and attractive as possible. Make a collection 
also of different kinds of cameras, from the pocket 
Kodak up. 

Photographs should be ranged along the wall in 
groups, each headed by the name of the exhibitor. 
There should be a section devoted to old-fashioned 
portraits, the daguerreotypes and ambrotypes of our 
grandfathers. At a certain point in the evening, 



154 SOCIAL TO SAVE. 

after all have examined these, a vote should be taken 
as to which shows the best workmanship, and the 
successful exhibitor should be rewarded with a gro- 
tesque wooden medal, presented with a comical 
speech. 

At least half an hour of the evening should be de- 
voted to a careful explanation of the principles of 
photography, made by some competent person, and 
illustrated with the apparatus, and with the actual 
performance, so far as possible, of the processes in- 
volved. An opportunity should be given for ques- 
tions from the audience relative to the cost of 
cameras, the difficulty of developing the plates, finish- 
ing the pictures, and so on. 

An open parliament, in which all photographers 
present will give whatever entertaining experiences 
they have had in connection with their favorite pur- 
suit, would add to the evening's enjoyment. 

AN ADVERTISEMENT SOCIAL. 

This is an age of advertisements, and no one can 
fail to become familiar with the various devices and 
catch words used by the most vigorous of American 
manufacturers and retailers. This common knowl- 
edge may be very pleasantly utilized in an evening's 
entertainment. 

The social committee will make a collection of all 
sorts of advertisements, choosing those that are 
most prominently before the public, such as baking 
powders, bicycles, typewriters, soaps, patent medi- 
cines, shoes, and soups. These are to be cut out 



SOCIALS AND GAMES. 1 55 

and mounted upon sheets of cardboard, no more 
than five or six on one sheet. Pains must be taken 
not to include in the portion of the advertisement 
selected the name of the article, or anything that 
would give too definite a clue to the name. Well- 
known phrases, such as " See that hump? " " Good 
morning; have you used — ," u T 9 ^. pure,' 1 "Abso- 
lutely pure," "A little higher in price, but — ," " It 
floats," " That tired feeling," and so on, should by 
all means be included. 

So many of the advertisers use artistic illustrations 
that your cards will be quite pretty when they are 
done, especially if some taste is used in grouping'the 
selections. Finally, number the advertisements con- 
secutively, and prepare pieces of cardboard contain- 
ing lists of numbers up as far as the advertisements 
go. Place the sheets of advertisements all around 
the room. 

The players will be furnished with paper and pen- 
cils, and required to make lists of the articles adver- 
tised. Of course they may begin with any sheet. 
Give them an abundance of time for filling out their 
cards. The most accurate list may be rewarded with 
the prettiest advertising calendar you can find, and 
the poorest with some grotesque advertising bill. 



THE END. 



INDEX. 



PAGE 

Acknowledgment, A Word 

of 22 

Advertisement Social ... 154 

Alliteration 13 * 

Alphabet Stories .... 128 
Amateur Photography So- 
cial i53 

Animal Consequences . . 139 

Animal Social 145 

Animated Portraits ... 29 

Apprentice My Son . . . 130 

Art Gallery 61 

Auction 151 

Authors' Exchange ... 49 

Averages 25 

Baby Social 72 

Bible Pairs 117 

Bible Social 138 

Bible Test 136 

Birthday Socials . . . . 101 

Blind Menu 41 

Burlesque Banquet ... 42 

Cat's Concert 131 

Chalk Talk 30 

City Chains 37 

Class Receptions .... 81 

Clothes- Pins 45 



PAGE 

Commerce 66 

Committees Take Turns . . 59 

Conversation Social, Novel, 73 

Cooky Social 142 

Corn Socials 29 

Counting the Words ... 28 

Court, A Queer 79 

Dates 143 

"D. B. F." 44 

Doublets 108 

Drawing Contest .... 54 

Egg Foot-Ball 136 

Egg Social 39 

Electric Social 120 

Endeavor Oratory .... 55 

Evening in Greenland . . 80 

Examination, A Queer . . 94 

Faculty Social ..... 133 

Fagot Party 148 

Farmyard 124 

Fern Socials 28 

Floral Love Tale .... 50 

Fortune-Telling 36 

German Socials 86 

Going to Jerusalem . . . 113 

Guessing Tournament . . 116 

\7 



i58 



INDEX. 



PAGE 

Halloween Social Pro- 
gramme 35 

Hanging 23 

Harlequin ....... 99 

Harvest Social 75 

Heart Party 65 

Hit-or-Miss Social .... 82 

Holmes Social 52 

Home Mission Social ... 97 

Hunt the Ring 118 

Husking-Bee 44 

Hypnotism 119 

I Love My Love .... 129 

Impersonation Social . . . 124 

Indoor Picnic 148 

Initials 118 

International Tea . * . . 105 

Introductions ..... 85 

Introduction Social ... 69 

It Rests . 86 

Jack Horner and His Pie . 143 

Japanese Social 109 

Journey by Map .... 104 

Key to Character .... 98 

Lemon Socials 100 

Literati 127 

Living Authors 135 

Magazine Meet 152 

Magic Music 140 

Meal-Bag Race 114 

Memory Game 38 

Mind-Reading 89 

Missionary Book Social . . 74 

Missionary Games .... 85 



PAGE 

Modelling Party .... 139 

Move, A 50 

Mrs. Brown's Tea .... 114 

Needles and Thread . . . 148 

New Members' Social . . 40 

Noted Men 139 

Nouns and Adjectives . 22 

Novels 141 

Number Groups .... 58 

Nut Social 80 

Nutshell, Everything from a, 104 

Old Maids' Repair-Shop . . 98 

Old-Time Social .... 45 

Orange Socials ..... 82 

Owl Social 113 

Pansy Social ...... 122 

Paper, The Hidden ... 36 

Patience 33 

Peanut Race ...... 151 

Photograph Social . ; . . 133 

Picnics, Christian Endeavor, 41 

Pie Social 56 

Pigeon 31 

Poetical Descriptions ... 92 

Political Social 57 

Polyglot Social 48 

Popcorn Social . .- . . . 145 

Portrait Social 142 

Post 40 

Post-Office Social .... 56 
Poverty Socials, Invitations 

to 26 

Preposterous Travel ... 126 

Progressive Games ... 88 

Quaker 107 

Quartette Social .... 45 



INDEX. 



J 59 



PAGE 

Questions and Answers . . 75 

Quilting Party 96 

Quotations 128 

Quotation Social .... 74 

Railroad Social 150 

Rainbow Fete 77 

Reciprocal 78 

Refreshments, Easily Pre- 
pared 38 

Runaway Feather .... 37 

St. Patrick's Day Social . . 42 

Scripture Autograph Social . 88 

Ship Social Tickets ... 90 

Significant Initials .... 25 

Silver Social 123 

Social Groups 77 

Social — to Save .... 15 

Social to Serve 54 

Something from All ... 48 

Songs in Pictures .... 78 

Sonnets 130 

Spelling-Matches, Old-Fash- 

ioned 67 

Spoons 115 

Stamp Social 52 

Statistical Social .... 70 



PAGE 

Steamboat's Coming! ... 87 

Strangers' Socials .... 74 

Tennis Social 72 

Theatrical Adjectives . . . 125 

Throwing the Handkerchief, 97 

Toasts 32 

To Fit 31 

Travelling Bean Bags . . . 129 

Trip on the No-Name Line, 53 

Trolley Parties 24 

Umbrella Social .... 132 

Union Conversazione . . . 146 

Union Social 149 

United States Mail ... 120 

Up Jenkins 144 

Valentine Supper .... 147 

Vegetable Social .... 59 

Violet Social 26 

War and Peace Social . . 43 

Week in a Day 108 

Weight, Their 91 

Weights and Ages .... 68 

Where Were You Born ? . . 46 

Who Are You? ,, .... 115 

Wishbone Social .... 102 

Wooden Social 47 



How To Play* 

By Amos R. Wells. 

7 1-4 &y 4 1-2 inches in size. Bound in cloth, with 
illuminated cover design. 162 pages. Price, 
75 cents. 

The author of this hook evidently be- 
lieves in recreation. The very first chap- 
ter is entitled, " The Duty of Playing." 
Separate chapters are devoted to the prin- 
cipal indoor amusements, conversation 
and reading being the author's prefer- 
ences, and also to the leading outdoor 
sports, especially the bicycle and lawn 
tennis. There are many practical chap- 
ters on such themes as how to keep games 
fresh, inventing games, what true recre- 
ation is, and how to use it to the best ad- 
vantage. " Flabby Playing," " Playing by 
Proxy," " Fun that Fits," " Overdoing It," 
—these are some of the chapter titles. In 
one section of the book scores of indoor 
games are described, concisely, but with 
sufficient fulness. 



United Society of Christian Endeavor, 
Boston and Chicago. 



Our Workers' Library 

Cloth bindings > JJ cents each, Postpaid. 
A 11 twelve volumes, $3.23, postpaid 

These books should be in every Christian En- 
deavor library. Are they in yours? 



THE OFFICERS > HANDBOOK. By Amos R. Wells. A man- 
ual for the officers of young people's societies, together with 
chapters upon parliamentary law, business meetings, etc. 

FIFTY MISSIONARY PROGRAMMES. By Belle M. Brain. 
Valuable suggestions upon ideal missionary meetings, together 
with fifty entirely different programmes for missionary meetings. 

THE MISSIONARY MANUAL. By Amos R. Wells. The most 
complete handbook of methods for missionary work in young 
people's societies ever published. 

FUEL FOR MISSIONARY FIRES. By Belle M. Brain. Prac- 
tical plans for missionary committees. Everything tried and 
proved. 

PRAYER-MEETING METHODS. By Amos R. Wells. This 
book contains by far the most comprehensive collection of 
prayer-meeting plans ever made. 

SOCIAL EVENINGS. By Amos R. Wells. This is the most 
widely used collection of games and social entertainments ever 
made. 

SOCIAL TO SAVE. By Amos R. Wells. A companion volume 
to " Social Evenings." A mine of enjoyment for the society 
and home circle. 

OUR UNIONS. By Amos R. Wells. Wholly devoted to Chris- 
tian Endeavor unions of all kinds, their officers, work, and 
conventions. 

WEAPONS FOR TEMPERANCE WARFARE. By Belle M. 
Brain. Full of ammunition for temperance meetings. Hun- 
dreds of facts, illustrations, suggestions, programmes. 

NEXT STEPS. By Rev. W. F. McCauley. A book for every 
Christian Endeavor worker. It is a storehouse of suggestions. 

CITIZENS IN TRAINING. By Amos R. Wells. A complete 
manual of Christian citizenship. 

EIGHTY PLEASANT EVENINGS. A book of social entertain- 
ments intended for young people's societies, church workers f 
temperance unions, and for individual use. 

United Society of Christian Endeavor, 
Trcmont Temple, Boston 155 La Salle St., Chicago 



